Celebrities Are Obsessed With This Amazing New AI Portrait App
Sparkling anime princess, fairy magic, and more genres make you look like nothing you've ever seen.
If your attention span has officially moved on from your Spotify Wrapped list and now you’re dying to know what you’d look like as a fairy princess, an intergalactic space alien, or a superhero… there’s an app for that.
Lensa, the new photo creativity app developed by Prisma.ai, might be exactly what you need.
The program uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to create avatars using a few of your own image uploads. Safe to say, with the gorgeous results it grants, people are already obsessed.
Celebrities like Michaela Jaé Rodriguez from Pose, Chance the Rapper, and even Britney Spears’ new hubby Sam Asghari, have all jumped on the Lensa bandwagon to AI-ify their selfies.
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How does it work?
Once you sign up with the app, you upload at least 10 images of yourself. The more images you upload, the more varied your photos will look, and the app encourages users to include as many facial features, expressions, and angles as possible.
Lensa provides a fool-proof checklist so that you don’t have to worry about which photos qualify, and if something can’t be used, it alerts the user so you can choose an alternative.
From there, it takes a bit of time for the software to generate the avatars (more than a few minutes, but less than 8 hours), but the results are absolutely stunning. Check out how Danielle Pinnock from Ghosts was transformed:
Is it free?
Unfortunately, you can’t portrait-ize yourself without handing over some cash to get images going. Different price tiers exist depending on your needs, ranging from $3.99 for 50 images, to $39.99 for a yearly subscription that allows unlimited app usage including the photo editing features and more new developments the app has planned.
You can always cancel before your trial is over or the next month starts to creep up, but if you’re a fan of the avatars and also find the other photo features useful, it could be worth the investment.
What about my privacy?
It’s natural to wonder how your images will be used once you send them into the AI universe. As with any app, you do surrender some personal data when you agree to the terms and conditions the app provides.
While customers technically retain rights to their own content, the app does make it clear any content can be used by them for things like promotional purposes, for example. However, this is pretty standard across any social media app, so it’s not much different from how companies can use things like Instagram embeds without your permission, for example.
If you’re lucky enough to have a lawyer who can break it down for you, go for it. Most tech critics aren’t too worried about breaches of privacy however. But some, like Mashable, advise only using the app if you’re sure you’re ok with how Prisma.ai/Lensa can potentially use your info for their own purposes.
Is there a catch?
Before you hit download, it is worth looking through some of the valid criticisms Lensa currently faces, mostly around artist attribution.
While Lensa states that it is “built on Stable Diffusion’s free, open source image generator,” some have discovered that the reason why so many avatars can be generated in a short amount of time, is because the technology modifies existing artwork from real-life artists.
TechCrunch breaks down a lot of the ethics behind using the app, including artists’ rights, supporting real-life artists in general, and more. Ultimately it’s up to each user to decide how they want to use the app, and in what capacity — but a cool holiday present could include reaching out to a creative friend for a special portrait instead.
Now that you have a basic rundown of this new AI app, try it out for yourself. It may make unlock a few anime superpowers, or make you feel like a vintage goddess in ways you never thought were possible!
