Unless you want to, that is.
It seems AI-generated imagery such as the picture of me above is “all the rage” right now; I saw some examples of the output that a couple of friends of mine generated using these tools, which influenced me to jump off the same cliff. There are several vendors/software packages available, but I chose one that one of these friends used, namely Prequel AI. A trial subscription only costs a few bucks, and then you can get a gazillion images in several styles generated for a few more bucks, so I “took the plunge.”
After downloading the app and subscribing to the service, you upload 10 “selfies” (actually, they could be fancy portraits taken by Richard Avedon, if you’ve got them, but in my case most of them were, indeed, selfies).
Taking selfies is essentially a bit egotistical, perhaps, and then generating images from them using these AI marvels is, too, so I definitely feel like I took a step into the megalomania side of life here.
Anyway, here are the 10 images I provided the app:
Note that I “pulled a fast one” on the industrious robot gerbils who slave and sweat to churn out these images by including a picture of myself as a whippersnapper (bottom right). They say not to upload pictures where you’re wearing specs, but I did upload one thus equipped because I ran out of relatively current pics of myself.
Initially, I wanted to add this next pair as two of the 10 photos, thinking the robots would need some other angles of my head (such as a side view and a back view):
… but these were rejected because they weren’t “of a face.”
I presume you’re getting bored by now, so I’ll cut to the chase and show you some of my favorite images that were generated:
And here are thumbnails of most of the others, some of which I’m either not crazy about or don’t think look much like me (at any age):
So was it worth it? Am I still slightly embarrassed for engaging in this navel-gazing and mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-who’s-the-coolest-of-them-all extravaganza?
Yes, it was worth it, although I don’t know what real value these images have. What will I do with them besides post them here? Embarrassed? Yes, a little. YMMV, of course.
UPDATE 12/18/2022
I still had a day to go on my trial period with the Prequel AI software, so I generated images of a combination Mark Twain and Me. Eight of the ten images were of Twain, and two of me (images 1 and 5 from the first set shown above, of those I supplied solely of myself).
Twain, when young, had red hair and blue-gray eyes. I, when young, had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. When old, our cranial follicles morphed into a silver (or gray) hue, although Twain’s eyebrows and mustache remained dark, whereas all the hair on my head is salt-and-pepper. With that in mind, it’s interesting to examine some of the Twain/Me mashups:
My favorite four:
Free downloads of my other writings (articles, novels, &c) can be accessed here.