You're constantly stumbling across profile pictures on social media that seem to have been created by artists. They all have one thing in common: They are AI-generated and largely come from the “Lensa” app from PrismaLabs.
The AI “Stable Diffusion” is behind the app, which promises to be able to generate photos from artificial intelligence like paintings.
How do you create your digital portrait with “Lensa”?
Among other free AI tools, Lensa is not free. If you want to have profile pictures created, you pay between four and seven euros. During installation you will also be asked to take out an annual subscription for 49.99 euros. However, at the beginning you have the option to test the subscription free of charge for seven days.
You then upload pictures of yourself into the app. Using the AI model Stable Diffusion, these are converted into digital portraits.
And how does that work?
In order for the app or the AI Stable Diffusion to be able to create images at all, a huge data set is required that was collected for this purpose. In the end you get digital portraits that could have been penned by artists. The appearance is often reminiscent of anime or science fiction. Many users are enchanted by these AI-generated works of art. Many then use the app themselves to create a work of art with themselves as a model.
Criticism from data protection advocates
Lensa's privacy policy makes it clear that the images generated from the app do not only belong to the user. Because here Lensa reserves the right to reuse and resell the user-generated content.
Data protection advocates also consider the fact that the app is unable to check whether the user is only uploading photos of themselves or someone else to be questionable.
Lascivious images via AI
During a self-test, Barbara Wimmer, a journalist at futurezone, found that her pictures also had a touch that was too revealing to put it harmlessly. She herself titled her experience “Lensa AI turns me into a “masturbation template” .
In a test by “TechCrunch” , adult images were generated by people who had not given their consent.
There is rightly concern here that photos of people will be loaded into the app and later published without their consent and possibly against their will to create images that may even be adult-friendly.
Criticism from creative people
The data sets on which the “creative outpourings” that come from the Lensa app are based are often protected by copyright. Some of them contain private pictures that were found on the Internet. These include works of art, drawings, photos, graphics, for which the actual authors - artists or photographers, for example - were not paid. Nevertheless, Lensa probably sees no contradiction in having created a profitable business model with the app.
Creatives are also concerned about the extent to which such AI “artists” could make their work unnecessary in the future. You are wondering whether photographers or designers will have to reckon with tough competition from AI in the future.
“This AI is not harmless. She is predatory, and her art will always fall short of what was drawn by someone dedicated to honing their craft. Artists are irreplaceable, and this new wave of automated art is truly disturbing.”
Artist Jenny Yokobori / Twitter
AI art can certainly be described as exciting and interesting, but it also leaves a frightening impression on many people.
Source:
br24 , TechCrunch , swr , futurezone.at
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