What if Kim Kardashian starred in Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’? Or Lionel Messi wasn’t just a hero on the pitch, but also flew around wearing a cape?
Well imagine no longer, as a new tool can take your favourite celebrities and turn them into hyperrealistic works of art in whatever situation you choose.
That means that Johnny Depp can replace Chris Evans as Captain America, and Mr Bean can sit on the Iron Throne in ‘Game of Thrones’.
The app, Reface, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to take the subject of an image and put them in a new setting, outfit, pose and art style.
The app, Reface, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to take the subject of an image and put them in a new setting, outfit, pose and art style
The ‘AI Avatar’ tool has been trained on different art styles and themes, and can apply them to new images. Pictured: Singer Rihanna as a neon warrior
HOW TO USE REFACE
First download Reface onto your device for free from the App Store or Google Play Store.
Once you’ve opened the app, click the ‘AI Avatar’ feature in the bottom bar and you will be prompted to choose the desired style of your artwork.
These will generate 48 unique artworks from your photos, but each style pack does cost £4.99 ($5.99).
Next, you will be asked to upload ten photos. Five of these should be selfies with different emotions and angles, and five should be images from your phone gallery of you with different backgrounds.
The tool will then generate the avatars within 40 to 60 minutes.
Tools that use a database of artworks to create these avatars have been trending on social media for months, like Lensa AI and MyHeritage’s ‘AI Time Machine’.
The Reface app works in a similar way, where its ‘AI Avatar’ tool has been trained on different art styles and themes, and can apply them to new images.
On the Reface website, it says: ‘We enhanced a generative AI model based on the open-source image synthesizer and boosted it with our face swap technology, which refines the tool’s accuracy.’
While the app has been around since 2020, its original premise was giving users the ability to swap their face into a video, GIF or meme using just one selfie.
It was downloaded 100,000 times within a month, and then started adding new features like the ability to add a face onto an object in a photo and animate it.
Now it has cottoned on to the trend of creating otherworldly avatars from photos, and has added the ‘AI Avatar’ tool to its list of functions.
‘Due to Reface’s vast experience working with AI representations of human faces, AI Avatar can perfectly transfer unique facial features and provide clearer hyperrealistic pictures,’ reads its website.
While the app has been around since 2020, its original premise was giving users the ability to swap their face into a video, GIF or meme using just one selfie. Pictured: Lionel Messi has been turned into Superman using Reface
Reface has cottoned on to the trend of creating otherworldly avatars from photos, and has added an ‘AI Avatar’ tool as a function. Pictured: Kim Kardashian as Wednesday Addams
If you would like to have a go yourself, you will first need to download Reface onto your device for free from the App Store or Google Play Store. Pictured: Mr Bean has been transported to Game of Thrones using the Reface app
If you would like to have a go yourself, you will first need to download Reface onto your device for free from the App Store or Google Play Store.
Once you’ve opened the app, click the ‘AI Avatar’ feature in the bottom bar and you will be prompted to choose the theme of your artwork by purchasing a style pack.
These range from ‘Pirate’ to ‘Christmas postcard’, and will generate 48 unique artworks from your photos, but each pack does cost $4.99 ($5.99).
Next, you will be asked to upload ten photos, which will be stored for less than 48 hours by the app before being deleted.
Five of these should be selfies with different emotions and angles, and five should be images from your phone gallery of you with different backgrounds.
The tool will then begin generating the avatars, which takes about 40 to 60 minutes, but you can close the app while it’s processing.
Once you’ve opened the app, click the ‘AI Avatar’ feature in the bottom bar and you will be prompted to choose the desired theme of your artwork
Available style packs range from ‘Pirate’ to ‘Christmas postcard’, and will generate 48 unique artworks from your photos, but each one does cost $4.99 ($5.99). Left: Margot Robbie as a queen. Right: Johnny Depp as Captain America
But before you rush to sign up to the app, you might want to take a closer look at its terms and conditions.
That’s because eagle-eyed users of another avatar-generating app, Lensa AI, found that you had to give it permission to ‘distribute’ and ‘use’ your photos without ‘any additional compensation’.
While its terms say this is ‘solely for the purposes of operating or improving Lensa’, cybersecurity expert Jake Moore, from ESET, says that users should be wary.
Speaking to MailOnline, he explained: ‘Similar to apps in the past that have requested lots of permissions and access to function, people need to be very aware of what they are allowing these apps to do and even own.
‘By using Lensa you will be granting permission to own the generated photo which will be placed in a database along with potentially other identifiable information.
‘Lensa also appear to have users agree for their generated pictures to be shared with third parties which often people do not realise to be a problem.’
On the Reface website, it says: ‘We enhanced a generative AI model based on the open-source image synthesizer and boosted it with our face swap technology, which refines the tool’s accuracy.’ Pictured: Jenna Ortega has been transported into some Christmas movie posters
He added: ‘Cybercriminals actively seek to locate such information for illicit use.
‘These databases hold valuable information which can potentially to be used alongside facial recognition technology raising concerns with data theft.
‘Even images that are not selfies will also be owned by the company and could potentially profit from these images.
‘However, this is something that is often the case in other similar apps so it is important to read the terms and conditions before uploading any images.’
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AI TOOL APPEARS TO BRING THE DECEASED BACK TO LIFE
Genealogy website MyHeritage unveiled a bizarre new online tool earlier in 2021 that can animate old photos of deceased family members.
The free deepfake technology, called Deep Nostalgia, takes any photo and animates the subject’s face – with strangely realistic and unsettling results.
Examples provided by MyHeritage show historical figures, including Queen Victoria, Mark Twain and Florence Nightingale, come to life.
Deep Nostalgia was developed by researchers at Israel-based firm D-ID, which specialises in video reenactment using deep learning.
Anyone can use the tool on the Deep Nostalgia webpage by uploading or drag-and-dropping an image – although to see the results you’ll need a MyHeritage account.
Src: dailymail.co.uk
