Why did you do this? Why did I spend $8 to get 50 abstract, impressionistic and mind-bending portraits about myself? Are you that narcissistic? Are we all alike?
These high-resolution images of our faces are flooding Instagram and other social media feeds. Grooves, also known under the name Magic Avatars. Lensa, an AI image generation engine that generates fantasy-driven interpretations from images we feed, creates them all.
Reface is another similar platform that allows you to insert your face into famous movie clips. That has been a common practice for quite some time. I turned myself into Tom Cruise(Opens in new tab).
The app was completely free (with many ads, if I recall correctly), but we all decided that it wasn’t wise to upload our photos to Rando app developers.
Lensa fills this space, but with a product almost asking you to pay for it. First with a hard sell on a high-priced subscription fee, then more casually with an AI-based pay-per-image offering.
I am shocked at the sheer number of people who pay for their images to be ingested and then spitted out as amazing AI art. FOMO is so strong that everyone (even this now-embarrassed reporter!) gives up. My son spent $15 on a lot of photos for his girlfriend.
I’m not proud
Why did you do this? Two reasons. I get tired of seeing Lensa Magic Avatars from other people on my Instagram feed. I need something new for Instagram. I’m a bit like this about my social feeds. I try hard to keep the tube full for reasons that I find difficult to explain here.
It was easy to add my AI-powered photos in the growing number of stunning Lensa-generated Instagram images. The app is free for both Android and iOS users. It offers you a $49.99 subscription offer that you can “cancel anytime.” Personally, I hate apps like this, the ones that pester you with an incredibly cool feature but ask for exorbitant cash payments up front (I might be cheap too).
The subview is an interface, just like other applications. You can ignore this and the app will take you to the pay per play section. Here you can purchase 50 ($7.99) or 100 ($14.99) AI-generated Magic Avatars.
I don’t know when the last time I paid $8 for a single app feature. But those beautiful photos were the siren song. I thought to myself, “Come on, you’re willing to pay that much for two Krispy Kreme Donuts and a Water,” which I bought last week.
The app then asks you to upload between 10-20 photos of yourself in different poses and expressions. I looked in the “Selfies” folder on my iPhone and found several suitable photos. Lensa rejected some of my photos (you didn’t explain why), so I uploaded a bunch. I should have taken far fewer selfies with silly faces and snapped far more photos. Lensa is like most AI photo systems: you get what you put in.
Overall, I was happy with the results (see a few examples above), but I felt uncomfortable and a bit like I had been played. Before uploading my photos, I should have asked more questions.
Lensa gave me 50 4K AI photos the day after (they are still on the app but you can download your favorite in standard or 4K resolution). I then sent Prisma Labs, a Lensa developer, a list of questions.
- Do you keep uploaded photos of yourself? Is it encrypted?
- When was the Magic Avatar created?
- How does artificial intelligence generate images?
- How many people have uploaded their pictures?
- Why preload a subscription when 50 photos can be purchased for $7.99
- How can you address concerns about photos being uploaded to the internet without permission?
- Have you ever heard of them being used to create adult content.
In some ways, you can take any — or all — of these questions and actually apply them to an AI-powered image creation system. All of these AI systems can be exciting, but they can also feel like black boxes. for some, We simply put in text messagesWe still don’t understand how art is made.
Lensa’s magic avatars are created by Stable Diffusion, a free and open-source image generation platform. It is one of many platforms that has been used. accused of appropriating the works of artists(Opens in new tab)It can be used to train its AI model.
But that’s not all. What happens to the images we give her? How can we be sure that the images we upload do not go to the AI for further training? This is a possibility that I can’t opt out of.
There are no prompts to warn you not to upload photos of others without their permission. Some people may be using the system, according to reports. To generate porn images for unsuspecting people(Opens in new tab)Without their consent.
Lensa will delete our original photos, but where will they go? Lensa has promised to delete all data, but I assume they still have it. We can only hope it is encrypted at the very least.
Prisma Labs Responds
I am happy to report that Prisma Labs didn’t include all the information I needed and didn’t answer any of my questions directly, but it directed me to other sources. Mega FAQ(Opens in new tab)Some of these concerns are not addressed.
Prisma Labs replied to the question “What does Lensa do with our images?”. It stated that the images were removed from Prisma’s servers as soon as processing was complete. The FAQ contains this language.
“We store avatars only as long as we can provide the service to our clients.” We are currently working on a new feature that allows users to permanently delete avatars from our servers.
Your original photos are gone but Lensa-created photos? It is still maintained at Prisma Labs. Interestingly, no mention is made of data encryption.
The FAQ does not address issues of image ownership. The image you upload must be yours, or one that you have access too. It covers “sexual” imagery, but mostly the AI’s tendency towards sexualizing female characters. Prisma Labs also stated that “Deliberately using the app to create explicit material is strictly prohibited by our Terms and Use. Lensa users are required comply with this requirement.”
It’s unclear how PrismaLabs enforces that rule. And even more helpfully, PrismaLabs notes that not all of its efforts have made AI immune to explicit imagery and biased content. We have made it clear that this product is not intended for minors. and warn users of potential content dangers.”
I can’t tell you not to use the app, especially after I did it. Before you do, ensure you are comfortable with the answers (or lack thereof) provided by Prisma Lab to any of these questions.
Source link
[Denial of responsibility! reporterbyte.com is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – reporterbyte.com The content will be deleted within 24 hours.]
