An advanced artificial intelligence developed in Japan can now generate high-resolution, photorealistic renderings of bodies, faces, clothing and hair of people who don’t exist.
The AI-generated human models are created by algorithms designed by DataGrid, a tech company housed at Japan’s Kyoto University, according to a press release translated from Japanese.
DataGrid said the technology will be marketed to clothing and advertising companies, which want photogenic models but might be looking to avoid paying for models, lights, photographers or catering.
In an eerie video produced by the company, over a dozen AI generated models are seen simultaneously morphing into other models, each wearing different clothing combinations.
The algorithm is what’s called a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), which is used to create realistic imitations of real-life objects or people. The technology is already used by some video game developers.
AI-generated human renderings causing concern
Tech experts have cautioned that AI-generated human renderings and deepfakes — which involve digitally superimposing faces on other people’s bodies — could undermine people’s trust in digital media and even news stories.
Earlier this year, the website, This Person Does Not Exist, made headlines for generating photorealistic human faces of people who didn’t exist. It also used GAN technology.
That website was created by an Uber software engineer, utilizes a complicated artificial intelligence algorithm developed by the American technology company NVIDIA Corporation.
That algorithm was trained using tens of thousands of online photos.
