Eerie AI-Generated Party Photos Appear Legitimate Until You Look Really Closely
Image by Miles Zimmerman and featured with permission
The party don’t start because it never existed.
These pictures look just like any other group photo taken at any house party. You have the pursed lips, the toasting of paper cups, and the occasional shot of a subject snapping a selfie. The difference is that this is a night these people will never regret, because it’s a false memory and so are its participants.
The images were generated by engineer Miles Zimmerman on AI art tool Midjourney, and they’ve since gone viral due to their hyperrealism, validating that artificial intelligence does have a good idea of what humans look like.
Midjourney is getting crazy powerful—none of these are real photos, and none of the people in them exist. pic.twitter.com/XXV6RUrrAv
— Miles (@mileszim) January 13, 2023
Images by Miles Zimmerman and featured with permission
“Midjourney is getting crazy powerful,” Zimmerman describes on Twitter. “None of these are real photos, and none of the people in them exist.”
But something about them is a little… odd. Hint: Can you count the less humanlike qualities in one hand?
As Ian Young, bureau chief of BC and Yukon at The Canadian Press, puts it: “Something seems off but I can’t quite put my fingerssssssssss on it.”
Just as it is tricky for some human illustrators to draw hands, robots, too, struggle with conjuring up certain body parts. If you look closely, you’ll notice that some of the women have extra fingers or odd-shaped hands.
You don’t say… pic.twitter.com/LRAZaqK6zW
— Ashley Day (@jellyscare) January 15, 2023
Seen a lot lf people pointing out the other ones but this one I think is going missed pic.twitter.com/CxfrMXizUr
— Evar Orbus and His Galactic Jizz-Wailers (@Piemanthe3rd) January 15, 2023
Some are naturally inclined to smile from cheek to cheek, thanks to their excess teeth.
And they’re all perfect too!
— Miles (@mileszim) January 14, 2023
Zimmerman also prompted some shots of men, which he admits required more effort because the machine gravitated towards churning out depictions of white males.
I had to be specific in order to get male-looking AI people—and even then, variation is a challenge. It definitely defaults to white people when you ask for “people”. pic.twitter.com/x3P0LKL7MU
— Miles (@mileszim) January 13, 2023
Images by Miles Zimmerman and featured with permission
Again, the hands are slightly malformed here, with one snap even featuring a levitating hand.
There’s no ignoring that AI sometimes gets everything right, however.
This is the most striking one yet—if someone posted this without context I would assume it’s real (I’m not cool enough for a party like this anyways) pic.twitter.com/LHclvzApCM
— Miles (@mileszim) January 13, 2023
Images by Miles Zimmerman and featured with permission
Onlookers point out it will just be a matter of time before the only way to differentiate between a real photo and a false one is by counting the fingers.
“Five and it’s real; six, it’s questionable; seven, and it’s definitely AI-generated,” suggests one Twitter user.
and 13 fingers
— ashley yates (@brownblaze) January 15, 2023
In response to half-jokes about AI setting new, unattainable beauty standards for society, Zimmerman reassures users that having “a normal amount of teeth, and working hands and fingers” is totally acceptable.
You can find out more about Zimmerman’s work on his website and Twitter.
The AI #bigfingersandteeth industrial complex promotes unrealistic beauty standards to impressionable young women everywhere—it’s ok to have a normal amount of teeth, and working hands and fingers. Don’t let society tell you otherwise.
— Miles (@mileszim) January 14, 2023
[via New York Post and Futurism, images by Miles Zimmerman and featured with permission]
