Whether on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok – you can see artistic portraits everywhere at the moment, sometimes in a comic style, sometimes in a sci-fi look, sometimes in a fantasy look.
These creations are not made by artists, but one artificial intelligence and an app that makes clever use of it. BILD explains what is behind the hype surrounding AI avatars and why you should rather refrain from taking part.
The app behind the hype
The AI avatars are created with the “Lensa” app. Within a few days, it shot to the top of the app charts for both iPhone and Android.
With the photo editing app, you can alienate your selfies, such as reducing the nose or enlarging the eyes.
She has a trick up her sleeve that is currently causing a great deal of excitement in many people: the “Magic Avatars”. You load up to 20 selfies into the app to feed the artificial intelligence. Then the AI calculates around 20 minutes – and spits out up to 200 artificially generated portrait photos.
The better the uploaded photos fit the specifications of “Lensa”, the better the results
How many you get depends on how much you want to pay: a subscription is required for the app (seven days free, then 49.99 euros per year). However, the “Magic Avatar” function costs extra: a pack of hundreds of artificial avatars costs 4.99 euros.
Whether a photo is calculated that blows your mind is a matter of luck. The BILD test shows: In fact, many of the results are quite presentable, but many photos also lack the wow moment or have image errors.
In some cases, it is a matter of luck whether the images in the “Lensa” app look similar
The three big catches of the “Lensa” app
So is the app the next big hit in terms of artificial intelligence? no Because the technology is not new and there are some problems with copyright, you should think carefully about whether you shouldn’t rather keep your hands off this hype.
► The AI of the “Lensa” app is actually free. Because behind it is the photo AI Stable diffusion. This means that “Lensa” does not sell the AI itself, but the computing power required to use the machine to create the avatars. “Lensa” is not alone in this: Apps such as “AvatarAI” or “AI Profile Picture” use the same technology.
► You as the user give up all your rights to the photos. You can use the images that you calculate with the app freely – but so can the company behind the “Lensa” app! Anyone who uses the function must agree in advance that “Lensa” can store, use and sell the generated photos! Nobody checks whether you upload photos of yourself or someone else.
► The AI steals from real artists. Of course, Stable Diffusion first had to learn how to create works of art. To do this, the AI was fed 2.3 billion photos in a learning process – including works by real artists. The AI also copies their style. On Twitter, many users point out that the photos from “Lensa” sometimes even contain the signatures of the artists. So the AI does not create art, but imitates the style it has learned from real, human artists.