In the "toolbox" category of the perfect faker, you'll find the site thispersondoesntexist. Check it out, it's just impressive.
The images you see in the banner of this article are not photos of real people.
They are all, and I mean all, AI-generated portraits.
The model that produces them was designed using a type of task called "Generation".
Well, I'm not going to dive into the scientific details of machine learning.
That's not what we're here for either.
Incredible... but fake
But it gives you an idea of what's currently possible in terms of ultra-realistic image generation by artificial intelligence!
As for you, if you are a UX designer, you now have a fantastic tool to generate free (and stunning) portraits for your personas or website mockups.
My opinion: two downsides
Here is my review of thispersondoesntexist.
AI-generated portraits are incredibly realistic: real photos.
To the point of wondering if the AI is not just looking for existing photos in an image database, instead of generating these portraits.
No registration required. Free. Super fast.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), this fake real photo portrait generator comes with a few limitations.
Furthermore, this AI seems to have a significant bias!
Impossible to customize
You have to rely on the whims of "the machine".
It’s impossible to give a description to roughly get the portrait of the persona you’re working on.
Obviously, the clever ones will immediately see the possible use cases.
I won't say more (they already know).
Racial Bias?
After generating about thirty ultra-realistic person portraits, I obtained nearly all ages from baby to young senior (around 55 years old). Boy or girl, and a nice variety of body types and styles.
However, all the portraits were of Western / Caucasian European appearance.
Or quite close.
A few slightly noticeable Sino-Asian or Middle Eastern features, but nothing more.
So maybe this AI is influenced by my geographical location when I request a realistic portrait?
But maybe not.
Test AI portrait generation
if you have better luck than I did.
To try it yourself, you have two versions.
The original site (2019)
Go to the site thispersondoesnotexist.com/
Simply refresh the page to have a new portrait generated (PC: F5 key on your keyboard / Mac: CMD + R).
Good to know, the domain (url) has existed since February 2019.
Which suggests that the technology was perhaps already quite mature before generative AI was opened to the general public, by OpenAI with chatGPT, at the end of 2022.
Most recent (2023)
Go to the .org version, https://thispersonnotexist.org/
Created in 2023, it is more user-friendly.
You have a button to generate several avatars at once.
In addition to the portraits, you have full-length people on a white background.
Useful if you have to make mock-ups of presentations.
For example, a brochure to sell an architectural project.
You can't personalize either.
But you can generate girl or boy of your choice (on portraits only).
The morphotype bias seems to be improved but not completely rectified.
