AI-generated headshots are now commonplace, with tech companies able to provide hundreds of “professional” images for just $10. The question is, should photographers be concerned?
The way it works is that you upload 10 of your photos to a website (in this case I used PhotoPacks.AI) and then wait about an hour to receive your AI images.
PhotoPacks recommends choosing high-quality, high-resolution photos with good lighting that include a variety of angles, outfits, and expressions. The better the training data, the better the output from the AI ​​model. The foundational model for PhotoPacks is SDXL by Stable Diffusion.
“It’s you, but it’s not you.”
It’s pretty weird to see an AI image of yourself, so I posted it to Instagram to see people’s reactions.
People who don’t even know me personally seem to think the photos are absolutely amazing – one photographer said they were “just like headshots” and another described them as “so realistic”.
But those who know me in the real world say that while technology is great, the “uncanny valley” still remains.
“It’s really unsettling to see your face a little bit surrounded by things that look funny,” says colleague Jeremy Gray.
The most common response from friends and family is, “That’s you, but it’s not you.”
New Business
We spoke with PhotoPacks founder Jeremy Gustine, who told us that his business has seen interest from people looking for “LinkedIn photos, photos for their website, and social media profiles.”
“The audience tends to skew younger (20-40 years old), many of whom are looking for something cheaper and more convenient than a professional headshot,” Gustine explains. “I think people are interested in headshots both for the novelty and the practicality they provide.”
Sure, I can attest to the novelty — it’s a lot of fun to share these with friends and family — but more seriously, I asked the Denver-based CEO whether he thought the technology could eventually replace photographers.
“I think it’s very likely that in the near future (five years or so), technology will advance to the point where higher quality, more customized photos than professional photographers can provide will be more affordable and easily available,” he says.
“Without that, AI will undoubtedly become a tool photographers use for post-processing, much like Photoshop is today.”
But is it ethical to use an AI image of yourself, an image that looks eerily like you, professionally?
“I understand not everyone will be happy with that,” Gustine said.
“I think it’s a lot like using Photoshop to improve lighting or enhance an image. That said, there are many unethical uses of this technology, including using it to deliberately mislead others.
“As long as you’re honest about the provenance of the photo, I think people will generally accept it. I think in the future it will become commonplace, and we will get to a point as a society where we address some of those issues and it will become the norm.”
Will we be using AI headshots anytime soon?
I would never use an AI headshot for professional purposes, it’s pretty close, but it’s not me and the man in the image is not me.
Also, there are still too many mistakes, like weird hands, asymmetrical eye reflections, etc. Technology may improve and make headshot photographers obsolete, or it may not.
It’s worth pointing out that Stable Diffusion, the company whose underlying models were used to create these headshots, is being sued for allegedly stealing over 12 million copyrighted photos that were used for training.
These legal battles, a potential lack of training data, and the technology’s unpopularity combine to make the future of AI unclear.
It’s 2024 and we’re in the Wild West, with the ground beneath our feet changing almost daily. AI imagery is likely here to stay and will remain closely associated with photography for the foreseeable future. Who knows how it will play out?