Stable Diffusion’s Next Version Gets Rid Of Uncanny-Valley Hands

Stability AI’s newest update could mark the end of awkward hands, a clear sign that a render was fake, in artificial intelligence-generated images.

For a while, users have had to make sure these spindly, odd-looking versions of fingers didn’t show up before they could use them. Midjourney’s V5 was one of the first to try correcting the mishap, and now Stability AI’s incoming SDXL 0.9 aims to do the same.

In a blog post, the company has shared a few sample pictures of hands that, upon first glance, look about as normal as an actual human’s. The first couple of images are of someone holding a coffee cup, with no sign of the uncanny-valley spaghetti fingers. The generator has gotten it pretty much right; even the manicure (specified in the prompt) looked polished and natural.

In another render of a hand holding a heart, the realism continues. Though, don’t look too closely, or you might catch an extra nub on a couple of the fingers. Thankfully, it’s now not as noticeable as it might have been in prior instances.
 
Other demo images show a realistic-looking wolf and aliens walking around Las Vegas. The notable improvement is attributed to the increase in the model’s parameter count, which encompasses all the weights and biases within the neural network. 

Stability AI emphasizes its potential for crafting “hyper-realistic creations for films, television shows, music, and instructional videos, as well as offering advancements for design and industrial use, places SDXL at the forefront of real world applications for AI imagery.”
 
If you want to create renders such as these, the SDXL needs a minimum of 16GB RAM, a GeForce RTX 20 or higher graphics card, and 8GB VRAM. It is compatible with Windows 11/10 and Linux operating systems. However, Stability will soon integrate the feature with its AI ClipDrop web app, which recently has just gotten a new upgrade that allows users to “uncrop” images and expand the canvas of their work.
 
 
 
[via Engadget and Bloomberg, images via Stability AI]