A startup artificial intelligence company is beginning to sell computer-generated images of humans to dating apps, so they can be used in marketing materials and chatbot windows.
Generated.Photos says its materials are particularly effective at increasing diversity as it offers images of ‘people’ from all ethnic backgrounds.
The website also implies that ‘fake’ head shots will be beneficial for businesses that want to depict “embarrassing situations” that could be too sensitive for a human model. This could be useful for certain niche dating sites that models may not want to be associated with.
A dating app is among Generated.Photos’ first three clients, but company founder Ivan Braun has refused to reveal which one it is.
The software needed to create such services is freely available, so some commentators are concerned that it could be exploited by scammers to create fake accounts that would be harder to detect.
Elana Zeide, an artificial intelligence expert from UCLA, told The Washington Post: “[This technology] showcases how little power and knowledge users have in terms of the reality of what they see online.”
“There’s no objective reality to compare these photos against. We’re used to physical worlds with sensory input … but with this, we don’t have any instinctive or taught responses on how to detect what’s real and what isn’t.”
‘This Person Does Not Exist’ is a free website that automatically generates a new image of a ‘human’ every time the page is refreshed.
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