Can you tell which of these images were created by a human and which were generated by an AI?

By William On Jan 18, 2023

It’s the art revolution that has swept the globe, allowing people to reimagine pop stars as retirees or young children or resurrect icons, dead too soon, in eerie hyper-realistic portraits.

In recent months, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create incredible images has skyrocketed, and now the internet is awash with millions of computer-designed images.

But the boom has led to AI firms now facing their own Terminator-style Judgment Day at the hands of human creators, with one of the world’s largest photo agencies launching a legal war, in the midst of a backlash from artists, who feel their work is being ripped off by computers.

Getty Images this week announced that it was suing Stability AI, alleging that the tech company was infringing copyrights by using Getty’s vast catalog of images to train its AI generators.

And as the image war rages on, MailOnline has compiled a series of CGI images featuring their real-life counterparts to see if they can identify which was made by an AI and which was written by a live artist. .

Which is real and which is created by artificial intelligence? Both images are very similar in style, but one was entirely computer generated. Artist Sarah Andersen is part of the lawsuit against Stability AI

Can you tell which of these was made by an AI? The green steam punk image of the Mad Hatter or this one of the woman with the bright blue hair? Artist RJ Palmer, who is not part of the lawsuit, posted a comparison between these two images on Twitter.

The rise of AI-generated art has exploded in the last 18 months, allowing anyone with a keyboard or phone to produce an image,

Last week, Turkish photographer Alper Yesiltas unveiled his collection of famous celebrities reimagined as retirees, with One Direction pop star Harry Styles and Hollywood actors Ryan Gosling and Jodie Foster among those photographed.

And in September, the photographer used AI to bring back stars who died at a young age in tragic circumstances, creating haunting portraits of Princess Diana, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Freddie Mercury and others.

The images were part of Yesiltas’ ‘As If Nothing Happened’ collection, and the artist wrote: ‘With the development of AI technology, I’ve been excited for a while, thinking ‘anything imaginable can be displayed on the screen’. reality'”.

And how about these two mermaid drawings? Which one do you think was made by a human? One was created by Kelly McKernan, who is currently suing over the use of images of her by artificial intelligence companies.

Artworks created by (AI) even managed to win first prize in an art competition at the Colorado State Fair Fine Art Contest, in a move that ignited the fury of human creators, with one stating that the world was ‘watching the death of art unfold’.

Emad Mostaque, the head of a UK company behind one of the most powerful AI imagers, stated: “Much of the world is creatively constipated,”

The former hedge fund manager believes his Stability AI company and Stable Diffusion program can democratize creativity, opening the doors for anyone to create new art.

But his vision, launched last year and becoming a global hit, is now under fire from legal action in the UK and US.

Three American artists, cartoonist Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz, claim that Stability AI and two other companies, DeviantArt and Midjourney, have infringed their copyrights by training their AI models on billions of images from the web without consent.

‘Each image output from the system is derived exclusively from latent images, which are copies of copyrighted images. For these reasons, each hybrid image is necessarily a derivative work,’ the claim in a California lawsuit, time informs.

While other artists have complained online, comparing a human-made Mad Hatter image to one created in a similar style by an AI.

Did you find out which images were real and which AI?

First picture: Sarah Andersen’s original is on the right, the AI-generated image is on the left.

Second image: The woman is AI, the man with the teacup is a human.

Third image: Kelly McKernan’s mermaid is on the left. The AI version is on the right.

Meanwhile, in the UK High Court, Getty Images has launched its only legal war, alleging copyright infringement.

In a statement, the stock footage giant said Stability AI “illegally copied and processed millions of copyright-protected images” to train its software.

The announcement added that Getty Images “believes that artificial intelligence has the potential to stimulate creative endeavors” and that the company offered special licenses for the use of photos in training AI systems.

“Stability AI did not seek any such license from Getty Images, and instead, we believe it chose to ignore viable licensing options and long-standing legal protections in the pursuit of its independent business interests,” the company continued.

A spokesperson for Stability AI told MailOnline: ‘Please note that we take these matters seriously. It is unusual that we have been made aware of this planned legal action through the press.

‘We are still waiting for the service of any documents. If we receive them, we will comment on them appropriately.’

Stable Diffusion and other AI generators filter millions of man-made images to “learn” and create their own images.

But critics say permission has often not been sought to use images for AI training, while AI supporters insist the practice is protected by fair use laws.