[HN Gopher] Show HN: AI-generated images that look like real life
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       Show HN: AI-generated images that look like real life
        
       Author : spaceman_2020
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2024-10-07 20:38 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.gounfaked.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.gounfaked.com)
        
       | spaceman_2020 wrote:
       | so a few days back, I discovered that with the new Flux v1.1 pro
       | image gen model, if you use a prompt like "IMG_XXXX.HEIC", you
       | get some extremely realistic images.
       | 
       | I spent a few hours playing around with it, trying out a ton of
       | combinations. Ended up with a very large library of images and
       | decided to make a quick website to share it.
       | 
       | Some notes and observations:
       | 
       | 1. Using a prompt like "IMG_XXXX.HEIC" tends to yield the most
       | realistic images, but most of these tend to be rather mundane
       | images of landscapes, flowers, poorly shot cityscapes
       | 
       | 2. Adding "IMG_XXXX.HEIC posted on Snapchat in [year]" yields
       | more realistic, casual images of people. However, a lot of these
       | look like screenshots, complete with the Snapchat UI. Most people
       | also tend to be attractive.
       | 
       | 3. Adding a [year] in the prompt yields some interesting images.
       | Like [2017] will yield blurrier images than [2023]. Adding [2021]
       | in the prompt got images with face masks and face shields
       | 
       | 4. The prompt "[firstName] [lastName] selfie" gets real-looking
       | selfies of real-looking people. You can use Indian, Hispanic,
       | Chinese, European, American, etc. names and get realistic images
       | of people with these ethnicities. Example:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/pc5JnhNRUEq...
       | 
       | 5. There is a decently high failure rate. The ~750 images on the
       | site are hand picked. I had to delete around 220 images for not
       | meeting the criteria (not real enough) or being just bizarre
       | 
       | 6. If this model is any indication, its soon going to be
       | impossible to tell what's real online
        
         | joegibbs wrote:
         | Wow that's amazing, you really can't tell. What is it that
         | gives most AI images that not-quite-real look? Is it due to
         | airbrushed images in the training data, including cartoons, 3D
         | renders and illustrations or all of that?
        
           | Hasnep wrote:
           | The image linked in that comment has a background that's half
           | car and half building, but yeah apart from that minor detail
           | it's pretty hard to tell.
        
         | mkl wrote:
         | Most of these look very good! Signs, text, clocks, number
         | plates, and girders or spindly branches tend to go wrong. There
         | are a few mutant hands [0].
         | 
         | Mountain Sheep in Snow [1] looks fake to me - the sheep are
         | more like dogs fading back to rocks, and have different scales.
         | 
         | Underground Time Display [2] looks obviously fake as the
         | clock's colon is in the wrong place and the sign has fake
         | writing.
         | 
         | [0] https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/ozjUKlysLq
         | l...,
         | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/XcNnWM6L54Q...
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/It9DhumKX7w...
         | 
         | [2]
         | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/GygiLirdHvq...
        
         | puttycat wrote:
         | Given your technique, how can one verify these aren't just
         | copies of the training data?
        
       | madamelic wrote:
       | I wonder how far into generative AI will have people developing
       | "intractable FOMO" where they see a beautiful place but then they
       | find out they can't visit it because it doesn't exist.
       | 
       | Are we seeing it already from people who are getting irrationally
       | angry about generative AI?
        
         | spaceman_2020 wrote:
         | Honestly the output from this model was a little scary. I could
         | always tell AI generated people and images prior to this
         | 
         | But most of the images here are just mundane enough that they
         | could have been taken by your average smartphone user
        
           | mattgreenrocks wrote:
           | I definitely can't tell, even knowing that these are from AI.
           | 
           | GeoGuessr-like sites are going to get trolled hard with AI
           | photos of nonexistent locations.
        
           | _sys49152 wrote:
           | cityscapes and urban photography - only a handful of examples
           | given but those images still got a ways to go
        
           | slau wrote:
           | A bunch of the people images are very clearly AI though. I'd
           | wager about 30-50% of them could be recognised as generated
           | by people with a bit of understanding of how these models
           | work.
        
             | ninetyninenine wrote:
             | nobody knows how these models work. Not even experts. These
             | are black box algorithms where people understand these
             | things in terms the analogy of a best fit curve in a series
             | of data points. Outside of this analogy... nobody
             | understands how generative AI works.
             | 
             | What made a model for a specific situation choose to
             | generate a hand with 6 fingers instead of 5? Or 5 instead
             | of 6? Nobody knows.
        
             | jprete wrote:
             | That's well above the threshold for destroying even the
             | pretense of photographs having any information value on the
             | Internet.
        
           | ninetyninenine wrote:
           | A little scary? You realize all the output generated by AI is
           | only going to get more and more and more real right?
           | 
           | Follow the trend line. You'll be seeing stories, movies and
           | works of art better than humans in the not too far future.
        
         | anigbrowl wrote:
         | [delayed]
        
       | sync wrote:
       | Great work! I think you have a business similar to Lummi[0] if
       | you:
       | 
       | - Enhance search capabilities
       | 
       | - Add a paid API
       | 
       | - Add a whole lot more images :)
       | 
       | Other royalty free image APIs out there like Unsplash[1] have
       | difficult licensing terms. AI is poised to disrupt this space.
       | 
       | [0]: https://www.lummi.ai [1]: https://unsplash.com/developers
        
       | 1024core wrote:
       | Throw these into a captioning system to generate captions, index
       | those captions with something like ElasticSearch and voila!
        
       | bentocorp wrote:
       | Until AI generated imagery has been tested by the legal system it
       | may be a bit too optimistic to call this "Royalty-free,
       | copyright-free gallery of images".
       | 
       | How different from a source image do these AI generated images
       | need to be to be considered "copyright free"?
       | 
       | If I grab a series of photos from shutterstock, run them through
       | a generative AI photo enhance process to improve the white
       | balance, contrast and levels is that adequate enough to be
       | considered "copyright free"?
        
         | ninetyninenine wrote:
         | >If I grab a series of photos from shutterstock, run them
         | through a generative AI photo enhance process to improve the
         | white balance, contrast and levels is that adequate enough to
         | be considered "copyright free"?
         | 
         | Hard to say. If I had the generative AI copy the photo but
         | change the time of day and angle then would it be copying?
         | 
         | What if I went to the same location and changed the angle and
         | the time of day? Would that be copying?
         | 
         | AI is essentially "drawing" the same photo from a different
         | time and angle. What if I did the same thing photorealistic-
         | ally by hand in photoshop? Would I be copying if I painted the
         | picture in the same way the AI did it??
         | 
         | I want you to consider what I'm doing here with my reply. I am
         | admitting to a crime right now. What I have done with this
         | reply is literally rip off different vocabulary words and
         | certain short phrases from books all over the world and mixed
         | up those words and phrases to produce the reply here. I am
         | ADMITTING to copying those books.
         | 
         | You going to accuse me of a crime even if I admitted to it? No.
         | But if I did the same thing with AI.... you going to accuse me
         | then?
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Your argument is based on a series of slippery slopes that
           | I'm sure a judge would not tread on.
        
             | ninetyninenine wrote:
             | I didn't even make an argument. I'm saying it's not clear
             | cut.
        
         | jessriedel wrote:
         | > Until AI generated imagery has been tested by the legal
         | system it may be a bit too optimistic to call this "Royalty-
         | free, copyright-free gallery of images".
         | 
         | Although it's conceivable there's a surprise legal finding,
         | companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are confident enough in how
         | it will go that they are willing to insure you for any
         | lawsuits, which would be ruinous for them if they consistently
         | lost.
         | 
         | (One can certainly argue that AI means the law _should_ change,
         | but that 's a separate question.)
         | 
         | > If I grab a series of photos from shutterstock, run them
         | through a generative AI photo enhance process to improve the
         | white balance, contrast and levels is that adequate enough to
         | be considered "copyright free"?
         | 
         | No, just like it's not enough for me to grab a photo and change
         | white balance and contrast. AI doesn't change anything here.
         | Copyright infringement is generally tested by comparing the two
         | works directly.
         | 
         | > How different from a source image do these AI generated
         | images need to be to be considered "copyright free"?
         | 
         | The same way it's always tested: "substantial similarity"
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substantial_similarity
        
           | jprete wrote:
           | > Although it's conceivable there's a surprise legal finding,
           | companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are confident enough in
           | how it will go that they are willing to insure you for any
           | lawsuits, which would be ruinous for them if they
           | consistently lost.
           | 
           | I don't think this is the right interpretation, at all.
           | 
           | They can act confidently about this because corporations
           | can't go below zero; the downside of the bet is so far in the
           | red, in that zone of bankruptcy, that it actually makes the
           | bet work even if they internally believe that they're likely
           | to lose in court.
        
       | 7874cole wrote:
       | Your website is loading forever, is it down?
        
       | mrtksn wrote:
       | The vibe I'm getting, they try to make it look real by making it
       | dull.
       | 
       | The problem with AI images is that they don't make sense and by
       | making the image dull, it reduces the urge to make sense of it I
       | guess.
       | 
       | AI images have very low fidelity. You know the "A picture is
       | worth a thousand words" phrase? I think AI images fail on that
       | because they are not an instance of a very complex system but a
       | very concentrated subject if you know what i mean.
       | 
       | When someone captures a picture of a dog, that's actually a
       | picture of a story about the past; That is, the surrounding
       | environment is arranged in a way that you can tell what just
       | happened moments ago or years ago. AI Pictures lack that story
       | and that's why I think the dull images are easier to pass as real
       | because they don't induce you to think about the moments ago.
        
         | Retr0id wrote:
         | AI-generated images aren't worth a thousand words, at least for
         | now, because the "prompt space" is just too small.
        
       | mmastrac wrote:
       | This trick has been floating around for about a week -- earliest
       | ref I could find:
       | 
       | https://x.com/fofrAI/status/1841854401717403944
        
       | lsy wrote:
       | I guess the question is: Who cares? What is this for, except
       | illustrating blogspam?
       | 
       | It seems that more resources are being poured into verisimilitude
       | across generative models, but what is the business model or even
       | human use case for it?
       | 
       | A picture of a glorious landscape seems worthless to me without
       | any grounding to be able to ask a question like, "where is
       | that?", "when do those flowers bloom?", "what is on the other
       | side of that mountain?" and receive any kind of interesting
       | answer.
        
         | elicksaur wrote:
         | 1. Scams. Human deepfakes/fake-fakes to make you believe you're
         | communicating with a real person.
         | 
         | 2. Self-image editing. You want a picture of yourself doing
         | something you are unable to do. Could be benign, but very
         | likely being used as a scam on social media in some way.
         | 
         | 3. Marketing. Putting your product in some setting without
         | having to do a photoshoot. People will argue this isn't a form
         | of scam, but it seems suspect to me.
        
       | ctrlw wrote:
       | Congrats, they do look good at first glance, without the usual
       | overly shiny look, and the pure Nature images do look real to me.
       | I'd really like to visit some of these places.
       | 
       | However, details are still off, e.g.
       | 
       | * the guy you linked to apparently sits in a car, but the ceiling
       | looks like a house (at least I've never seen a vehicle like
       | that). Reversed issue with this guy:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/EeJBCnNsZG1...
       | 
       | * the bicycle guy sits in the air, and the bike is mutated in
       | several places:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/WrfWYZlthe2...
       | 
       | * The face in Yoga in the field is distorted:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/BUcURAtyzjb...
       | 
       | * Hands are ok-ish but not yet solved:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/SeO8u2HZ-V2...
       | 
       | * Any text is obviously fake, which also affects urban
       | environments. Agree with this caption:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/oc6eI5w2kQQ...
       | 
       | Bonus points for this portrait where the tower seems to have a
       | face as well:
       | https://d1l4k1vcf8ijbs.cloudfront.net/fakeimages/6ho0FIV-i2t...
        
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