This week, actress Brooke Shields posted an image of her action digit version, which comes with a needlepoint kit and a pet terrier. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a Georgia Republican, imagined her own figurine with a small giveaway and a Bible.
These surreal dolls will not be seen anywhere in toy stores, at least for the time being. It is created using artificial intelligence tools including ChatGpt.
Over the past few weeks, social media users have turned their eyes to AI to generate Barbie feed versions of themselves, their dogs, or their favorite famous people. Anna Wintour is not spared AI-Doll treatment. Neither of them have Ludwig van Beethoven.
This trend has been frustrated by illustrators who have opposed the use of unauthorized artwork to train these artificial intelligence tools and continue to be concerned about the impact AI has on their livelihoods. Some responded by posting similar images of figurines they portrayed themselves.
“Human Made” reads a text bubble in the corner of such an illustration of Lynn Tuluon, who portrays himself in a sketchbook and a cat Kayla.
Torion, 23, a Manhattan artist, is watching an AI action figure. This is what makes it the latest trend in some AI portrait trends.
“They say, 'We want you to see yourself with our products,'” she said.
For many people, it is an attractive possibility.
Susiegeria, 37, a fitness trainer in Toronto, found the action figure created for her by ChatGpt to be surprisingly realistic. It comes with a kettlebell and a cartoon peach, representing a class focused on lute teaching at a nearby gym.
“It's kind of cool to see myself reflected in the shape of the cartoon,” she said. “I think we're looking for other ways to see ourselves in the world we live in. This is very online.”
Jeria said she empathizes with people who worked in an industry that could lead to unemployed because of AI.
Pat Basselman, 42, who works in marketing and living in Andover, Massachusetts, entered a long prompt into the paragraph into ChatGpt on Thursday to create his own action figure.
“Use this photo of me to create my own action figure with a blister pack in a premium collectible toy-like style,” he wrote, adding a request to grill tongs and a “relaxed and friendly smile.” He uploaded the headshot and a few seconds later the image was displayed.
“Wife and children are not included. The messy house is sold separately,” reads the line of text at the bottom of the image.
Soon his three daughters wanted a version of themselves. In a few more minutes, they were presented with a figurine with ballet slippers, a video game controller and a ponytail accessorized with a cup of bobati.
The popularity of AI platforms is rapidly increasing, so their image-generating capabilities are under scrutiny. Artists and musicians argue that the technology threatens their livelihoods. Deepfake images are explicitly confusing schools, political campaigns, celebrities.
(The New York Times filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Openai and its partner Microsoft, accusing them of using publicly-published work without permission to train artificial intelligence. They denied those claims.)
In March, social media was flooded with videos recreating the style of Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki using ChatGpt. In response, some users distributed a clip of Miyazaki in their 2016 documentary calling AI a “shaming for life itself.”
Martha Ratcliffe, 29, an illustrator for Leeds, UK, said she spent years developing portraits in a distinctive style. She said she felt frustrated every time she saw new AI portrait trends that were ostensibly painted from the work of real artists without compensation.
She said it's fun to jump on trends. “But when I see the big picture, I think there are a lot of creatives who are worried about,” she added. “We just don't want to wipe out the entire creative industry.”
She spent about 20 minutes on Saturdays to create trendy hand-drawn productions. She portrayed her holding a newborn surrounded by flowers, colored pencils and a steaming mug that said “mama.”
“The people who do that are far better than robots,” she said.
