Beauty's in Eye of the Beholder, Reality's in the Hands of AI --- Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, FaceApp and Try It On are leading AI's crazy photo-software revolution.

 

"My new headshots are some of the best ever. Makeup? Better than my wedding day. Hair? Perfect volume. Outfit? Look at that leather!

You would never know these were completely artificial photographs. At least not until you saw the one where I have 12 front teeth. Or the one where my fingers resemble chopped sausages. Or the one where I have a dangling porcelain doll hand.

No, AI headshots aren't yet perfect, but they're so close I expect we'll start seeing them on LinkedIn, Tinder and other social profiles. Heck, we may already see them. How would we know?

Welcome to our new reality, where nothing is real. We now have photos initially captured with cameras that AI changes into something that never was. Or, like the headshot to the right, there are convincingly photographic images AI generates out of thin air.

Extreme photo editing isn't new -- it has been the domain of Photoshop masters for decades. But advancements in AI image models now let those of us who struggle with stick figures do it too.

Last week, Adobe, maker of the Photoshop, released a new tool in Firefly, its generative-AI image suite, that lets you change and add in parts of a photo with AI imagery. Earlier this month, Google showed off a new Magic Editor, initially for Pixel phones, that allows you to easily manipulate a scene. And people are all over TikTok posting the results of AI headshot services like Try It On.

After testing a mix of AI editing and generating tools, I just have one question for all of you armchair philosophers: What even is a photo anymore?

Editing reality

I have always wondered what I'd look like as a naval officer. Now I don't have to. I snapped a selfie and uploaded it to Adobe Firefly's generative-fill tool. One click of the Background button and my cluttered office was wiped out. I typed "American flag" and in it went. Then I selected the Add tool, erased my torso and typed in "naval uniform." Boom! Adobe even found me worthy of numerous awards and decorations.

Astronaut, fighter pilot, pediatrician. I turned myself into all of them in under a minute each. The AI-generated images did have noticeable issues: The uniforms were strange and had odd lettering, the stethoscope seemed to be cut in half and the backgrounds were warped and blurry. Yet the final images are fun, and the quality will only get better.

I used the free beta Firefly web suite, which just requires an Adobe account. The Firefly generative-fill tool is also available in the Photoshop beta app.

You don't have to go to extremes when using AI to recognize, swap and remove objects in a photo. In FaceApp, for iOS and Android, I was able to change my frown to a smile -- with the right amount of teeth! I was also able to add glasses and change my hair color. Some said it looked completely real, others who know me well figured something was up. "Your teeth look too perfect." Invisalign, here I come.

Magic Eraser, already in the Google Photos iOS and Android apps, uses similar technology. Circle or tap the photobomber who ruined your Disney World family portrait and he'll disappear into thin air. It works well, with only occasional signs of editing. Lensa, the AI avatar app that clogged your Instagram feed last winter, has a similar feature.

Generating reality

Those apps let you make changes, big or little, to existing photos. Generative-AI headshot services create entirely new ones.

I uploaded 10 different photos of myself to Try It On. Then I selected the headshot styles I was interested in -- Business Outdoors, Business Studio, Casual Outdoors, etc. A few hours later, I received 100 different shots with me in various poses, outfits and facial expressions.

During the wait, an automated process turned my photos into an AI model of me, Try It On co-founder Nathan Landman explained. Then the system used that model to generate images of "me" in all the contexts I selected. Since the service's shots are all computer generated, they show some telltale AI signs, including those problematic teeth, eyes and fingers.

"This intricate detail poses a challenge for current AI models," Landman said. He added that the company deletes your model when your images are generated, and you can also delete your account.

Out of all of them, I marked seven I would potentially use on LinkedIn. The others were great for texting to friends: "I'm always here to lend a porcelain hand!" Try It On costs $17 for 100 headshots. It might seem pricey for an app, but it's considerably cheaper than a hairdresser, a makeup artist, new clothes and a pro photo shoot.

The real reality-bending happens in Midjourney, which can turn text prompts into hyper-realistic images and blend existing images in new ways. The image quality of generated images exceeds OpenAI's Dall-E and Adobe's Firefly.

Unfortunately, it's more complicated to use, since it runs through the chat app Discord. Sign up for service, access the Midjourney bot through your Discord account (via web or app), then start typing in prompts. My video producer Kenny Wassus started working with a more advanced Midjourney plugin called Insight Face Swap-Bot, which allows you to sub in a face to a scene you've already made. He's become a master -- making me a Game of Thrones warrior and a Star Wars rebel, among other things.

Dealing with reality

We're headed for a time when we won't be able to tell how manipulated a photo is, what parts are real or fake.

Dana Rao, Adobe's general counsel and chief trust officer, told me he believes most people won't have concerns about their photos having edits to make them look sharper. It doesn't have to be "the perfect actual representation of your cat," he said. But, he added, when influential messages are conveyed through images -- be they news or misinformation -- people have reason to know a photo's origin and what's been done to it.

Firefly adds a "content credential," digital information baked into the file, that says the image was manipulated with AI. Adobe is pushing to get news, tech and social-media platforms to use this open-source standard so we can all understand where the images we see came from.

So, yeah, our ability to spot true photos might depend on the cooperation of the entire internet. And by "true photo," I mean one that captures a real moment -- where you're wearing your own boring clothes and your hair is just so-so, but you have the exact right number of teeth in your head." [1]

1. Beauty's in Eye of the Beholder, Reality's in the Hands of AI --- Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, FaceApp and Try It On are leading AI's crazy photo-software revolution. Stern, Joanna. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 30 May 2023: A.11.