An Instagram photographer who garnered thousands of followers thanks to his stunning portraits has admitted that they are actually fakes.
The apparent ‘photos’ were created by Midjourney – software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images – and updated in Photoshop.
Jos Avery, from the US, even gave each figure a name, geo tag and touching story that he added in the image captions, but these are marked as fictional.
The photorealistic black and white images helped his Instagram account, @averyseasonart, gain nearly 29,000 followers since he first posted in October.
However, after admitting that the images were AI-generated, he received some backlash from followers who felt cheated.
An Instagram photographer who garnered thousands of followers thanks to his stunning portraits has admitted that they are actually fakes
The apparent ‘photos’ were created by Midjourney – software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images – and updated in Photoshop
Under a striking image of an older man captioned “Bighearted Bruce,” one commenter wrote, “You scroll through your posts even though you seem to be unfairly misleading people from the start.
“I can understand the appeal of the ‘hat trick’, but at the very least you need to make it known through a hashtag that these are AI generated and edited.”
Others read: ‘Bruce does not exist and has not roamed the streets. What a bunch of s#$&’ and ‘Fictional story, fictional photo’.
Some mention that the long stories and some 30 hashtags in the image captions mean they miss the “#aiart” disclaimer hidden within.
But these negative comments are surrounded by hundreds of others praising Mr. Avery for his photographic skills.
One follower wrote: ‘Beautiful photo. How did you light it,” to which the artist responded to reveal it was AI-generated.
“Probably more than 95 percent of the followers don’t notice. I’d like to clean up,” he said Ars Technica.
“The reaction on Instagram took me by surprise. The end product of art resonates with people.’
Jos Avery, from the US, even gave each character a name, geo tag and touching story which he added in the image captions, but these are marked as fictional
After admitting that the images were AI-generated, the photographer received comments from followers who felt cheated
Until recently, Mr. Avery had been deliberately vague to his followers about how he got his images, or flatly said they were real photos.
He even went so far as to come up with the type of camera and lens he used to make them.
The artist explained, “My original goal was to fool people into showing AI and then write an article about it.
“But now it has become an artistic outlet. My views have changed.’
However, he argues that even though he didn’t take his 160 photos with a camera, it took a lot of effort to get them.
Midjourney requires the user to enter a text prompt which is used to generate four different images.
This is similar to DALL-E, a text-to-image tool released last year by OpenAI, which also created the revolutionary AI chatbot ChatGPT.
These algorithms are fed millions of photos to “learn” what different objects should look like, and finally put them together.
Once given a prompt to generate an image of, they will notice a range of key features that may be present and generate pixels to visualize their interpretation.
After capturing an image he likes through Midjourney, Mr. Avery updates it in Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom before uploading it to social media.
“It takes a tremendous amount of effort to take AI-generated elements and create something that looks like it was shot by a human photographer,” he said.
“The creative process is still largely in the hands of the artist or photographer, not the computer.”
He added that while it seems “right” to disclose when an image is AI-generated, the photography industry has not always been outspoken about elements of deception in the past.
said Mr. Avery: ‘Do people who wear makeup in photos disclose it? What about cosmetic surgery?
“Every commercial fashion shot has a good dose of Photoshopping, including replacing celebrity bodies on magazine covers.”
Until recently, Mr. Avery had been deliberately vague to his followers about how he got his images, or told them outright that they were real photos.
After generating an image he likes through Midjourney, Mr. Avery updates it in Photoshop or Adobe Lightroom before uploading it to social media
Since going mainstream, artwork from tools like Midjourney and DALL-E have become a source of controversy.
In December, Lensa AI, an app that uses AI to generate a series of avatars using a selfie, came under fire for a number of conditions.
They state that the app is allowed to “use” and “distribute” a user’s photos indefinitely – and without “any additional compensation.”
The terms of use also state that Lensa AI can use any uploaded images to train the neural network.
It was reported that people using the app have seen “signatures” in their output images.
Social media users claim this suggests signed artwork was once “stolen” to train the tool.
One of them said, “The fact that mutilated and distorted artist signatures appear on the photos you ‘take’ in that AI app that everyone is using should really be a wake-up call that this is stolen art and that what happens is unethical.’
Lensa AI, an app that uses AI to generate a series of avatars using a selfie, came under fire after it was reported that users had seen ‘signatures’ in their output images
However, others point out that these are probably not real signatures and that the AI just learned from looking at artwork that has a lot of squiggles in the corner.
“Can you argue that this is an acknowledgment/reference to inspiration?” wrote one Twitter user.
The ever-increasing popularity of tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT has led to concerns that one day we will be completely surrounded by AI-generated content.
The more information some of these algorithms have to learn, the more intelligent they become and the harder it will be to distinguish their output from that of a human.
Dr. Mark Lee, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Birmingham, said: ‘It is now common for AIs to write blogs for social influencers and celebs.
“I wonder if this will keep fans looking for more human-generated content — if they can see it.”
AI-generated photos of ‘people’ at a party look eerily realistic – until you take a closer look
Artificial intelligence can now let people invent a social life by creating images that suggest they attended a party that never happened and with friends that don’t exist.
Twitter user Miles created a realistic-looking collection using the AI system Midjourney, which generated images of women smiling at the camera and men raising their cups for a toast.
The images appear to be candid shots of friends at a party, but a closer look might give you nightmares.
The ‘people’ grin with mouths full of teeth, hands grow from hips and tattoos look like fungi growing on their skin.
However, the outrageous number of fingers has captivated the internet, with one user saying they look like “a nest of alien appendages sprouting to devour their host.”
Read more here
A Twitter user used the Midjourney AI system to create images of people at a party. Although they look realistic, many of the “people” are made with more than five fingers on their hand
