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If you’ve been on social media the past couple of weeks, you've likely noticed people sharing vibrant self-portraits that look like works of art. But there’s no artist behind these stylized images; it’s the work of Lensa, an AI-powered photo editing app that has recently dominated the Apple App Store by being the top-downloaded (free) app.
So, what does Lensa do, exactly? Once you’ve downloaded the app in either the App Store or Google Play, you can use tools like removing objects from photos as well as Face Retouch and Magic Correction to ”perfect the facial imperfections.” That won’t, however, get you the artsy portraits that have taken over the internet. It's a separate feature called Magic Avatar that only premiered in late November (Lensa has been around since 2018). Using it requires you to upload 10 to 20 photos of yourself and pay $3.99. Doing so will generate 50 images that imagine you in a range of styles, from sci-fi costumes to Pop Art portraits and more.
As with other AI art generators, Lensa, and its parent company Prisma, is not without controversy. Folks are questioning how Prisma uses the uploaded images. The company maintains that the photos help to train its AI, and it does not retain the pictures once the face has been converted to data.
Artists are also speaking out against the Magic Avatar feature. Stable Diffusion is the AI image generator on which Lensa is run, and it is trained on 2.3 billion caption images from across the internet. That is a massive amount of data and includes copyrighted works from Pinterest, Smugmug, Flickr, DeviantArt, and Art Station as well as stock image sites. Artists cannot opt in or opt out of having their artwork included in this image collection which means that their distinctive style can be mimicked and recreated by AI in mere seconds. By sharing their work online, it’s viewed as helping AI train them out of a job.
Voice actor Jenny Yokobori wrote a tweet thread reflecting on how AI generator tools like Lensa affect artists. “Looking at the results [of Magic Avatar] made me feel really sad,” she wrote, “because I could see that the images were born from the thousands and thousands of hours of practice of real artists.”
If you've recently seen artsy self-portraits appear in your Instagram feed, it might be the work of Lensa, an AI-powered photo editing app.
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Lensa has dominated the Apple App Store by being the top-downloaded (free) app.
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Upload 10 to 20 images of yourself and use the Magic Avatar feature. It will imagine you in a range of styles, from sci-fi costumes to Pop Art portraits and more.
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For $3.99, you can generate 50 images.
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Some celebrities have also used the AI selfie generator.
Conan O'Brien
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Taraji P. Henson
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Michaela Jaé
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Chance the Rapper
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Anna Camp
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Lilly Singh
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Magic Avatar, however, is not without controversy—namely that the AI it uses collects images across the internet without artists' consent and then is trained to mimic their art in mere seconds.
Hey everyone!
I know a lot of people have been posting their Lensa/other AI portraits lately. I would like to encourage you not to do so or, better yet, not to use the service. These AI seem like harmless fun but they are predatory and intend to replace artists. (1/9)
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) December 3, 2022
I see the appeal, it’s cheap and fast and seems harmless. But, these AI are actively hurting real artists who have actually worked to be as good as they are. Real art shouldn’t be cheap or fast because art is born from passion and dedication. (3/9)
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) December 3, 2022
There are countless artists out there who are just trying to make ends meet and deserve to feel valued. Please don’t forget about the humans behind all the beautiful art we see daily on this bird app. (5/9)
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) December 3, 2022
These AI aren’t harmless. They are predatory and their art will always fall short of something drawn by someone who has dedicated themselves to honing their craft. Artists are not replaceable and this new wave of automated art is really troubling. (7/9)
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) December 3, 2022
That being said, I fully intend to commission real artists and to showcase the portraits I get from them. Real artists can never be replaced. I want to apologize and take accountability for my lapse in judgment. Support real artists. (9/9)
— Jenny Yokobori (@JennyYokobori) December 3, 2022
Lensa: Website | Instagram
h/t: [TechCrunch]
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