machine-generated compilations of human faces are coming to a brochure near you thanks to newer, cheaper AI technology that uses thousands of photos of human faces in order to create convincing mock-ups.
Aside from the questionable ethics of using fake images to sell products to actual people—one AI image startup boasts a dating site as a client—is the source of these images. The technology can’t just conjure up a human face from nowhere. Instead, many of these companies rely on models who weren’t told ahead of time what their photos would be used for and aren’t paid extra for the fact that bits and pieces of their faces are being used thousands of times for purposes they never consented to.
Perhaps the only good thing about the coming days in which humans will no longer be able to trust their eyes is that we are due for some terrifying new monsters: “But the systems are imperfect artists, untrained in the basics of human anatomy, and can only attempt to match the patterns of all the faces they’ve processed before. Along the way, the AI creates an army of what [Ivan Braun, co-founder of Icons8] calls “monsters”: Nightmarish faces pocked with inhuman deformities and surreal mutations. Common examples include overly fingered hands, featureless faces and people with mouths for eyes.