For better or worse, AI has officially arrived. Soon the most complex issues facing humanity will be aided by the help of super intelligence, and soon the world may or may not be enslaved by Malevolent Cyborgs… in the meantime, AI is having a blast making caricature art.
Yes, you know that dude at the carnival who can draw you and your SO as Bonnie and Clyde with big ears? Well, download Lensa on the app store, send the software ten photos of yourself, and this robotic Salvadore Dali will legitimately turn you into a beautiful anime space god. It’s kinda related, right? Celebrities like Chance The Rapper, Steve Aoki, and Britney Spears’ new spouse Sam Asghari have all taken to social media to show off their own personalized Lensa images. They’re both hilarious and epic and generally pretty fun to gaze at.
Seems great, but here’s a question many are asking: Is this really AI or just some kids locked in the basement at Art Center in Pasadena? Does it create its “own” works of art? Because the software relies on a database of already made works to generate its images, some argue Lensa steals from artists.
Folks have taken to twitter to confront Prisma Labs, Lensa’s developer, about the prospect of harming professional Artists.
“…produces unique images based on the principles derived from data” that’s a nice way of saying produced from stolen artwork. There’s no way around that, so just own it and stop treating people like idiots.
— dehaaff_art (@dashaaff) December 7, 2022
The feed for your AI is from the original art of humans only. Then how can you say that your are not a copy cat (as you said AI cannot create its own).You should publish the details of the images which went into AI algo to train it.
— Rajkumar Nayak
(@Rajkumar_Nayak_) December 7, 2022
Where did you get your data sets?
— Ian Davis (@IanDavi90792932) December 7, 2022
Prisma responded with this:
To sum up, AI produces unique images based on the principles derived from data, but it can’t ideate and imagine things on its own. As cinema didn’t kill theater and accounting software hasn’t eradicated the profession, AI won’t replace artists but can become a great assisting tool
— Prisma Labs (@PrismaAI) December 6, 2022
“It can be a great assisting tool.” Suspect or so awesome? You decide, based on your ethics, beliefs, and what you feel about the long-debated topic of creative ownership in general. If you want to have a go at Prisma’s new technology, download the app here. The first round of fifty photos will cost $3.99 and a yearly membership with unlimited photos will put you back $39.99.