AI house party images are freaking people out

We can all spot a photo created by AI, right? We like to think so at least. While the latest series of photos showing a fake house party full of people who don't exist doesn't exactly challenge that assumption, it might make you do a double take. 

A Twitter user shared the series of house party photos, which were generated by AI platform Midjourney, and at first glance they seem normal. Until you look a bit closer. (If you want to have a go with AI yourself, see our best AI photo editing software post or our guide to how to use DALL-E 2.)

Some of the images include deformed or strange looking hands, often with more than five fingers. Traditional artists have been struggling with how to draw hands for centuries, and it seems that new technology has the same problem.

In other images the partygoers appear to have too many teeth, giving them quite eerie looking smiles, and one tattoo is more a green smudge than a definite outline.

The AI platform itself also seems to have its own implicit biases: "I had to be specific in order to get male-looking AI people," says Miles, who posted the pictures, "and even then, variation is a challenge. It definitely defaults to white people when you ask for 'people'."

The people in the images also look relatively well off, or at least not poverty stricken, perhaps suggesting another bias of the programme.

It seems that real-life people online have been pretty taken with the images, which have gained over 17,0000 likes so far. Though of course, people have been quick to point out the discrepancies in the photos.

Real-life photographers can breathe a sigh of relief, then, for now at least. 

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Rosie Hilder is Creative Bloq's Deputy Editor. After beginning her career in journalism in Argentina – where her blogging prowess led her to become Deputy Editor of Time Out Buenos Aires – she moved back to the UK and joined Future Plc in 2016. Since then, she's worked as Operations Editor on art and design magazines, including Computer Arts, 3D World and Paint & Draw, and got the 'Apple bug' when working on US title, Mac|Life. In 2018, she left the world of print behind and moved to Creative Bloq, where she helps take care of the daily management of the site, including growing the site's reach through trying to please the Google Gods, getting involved in events, such as judging the Brand Impact Awards, and helping make sure its content serves its readers as best it can. Her interests lie in branding and illustration, tech and sexism, and plenty more in-between.

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