[The brief story below from My Modern Net describes a project by Istanbul lawyer and photographer Alper Yesiltas in which he uses AI and other software to create realistic images of what celebrities who died years ago would look like today, “brought back to life as if nothing happened.” See the original story for the ten images. His most recent project, which Yesiltas presents in a Bored Panda
post, is called “Thisness” (“[t]he quality in a thing of being here and now or such as it is”) and features 17 images that address the question “What would some iconic people look like if they lived in our time instead of living in theirs?” See also Tommy Player’s “Time Travel To The Future (2027): Photoshopped Actors” in another Bored Panda post. Moving from images to sounds, coverage of Yesiltas’ work in Consequence
adds this:
“This isn’t the first time AI has been used in relation to [Curt] Cobain and [Jimi] Hendrix. A project called Lost Tapes of the 27 Club launched in 2021 using Google’s AI program Magenta to create songs in the style of musicians who died at the age of 27. More recently, the use of AI in music came under controversy after AI robot rapper FN Meka’s use of the N-word in lyrics resurfaced following his signing to Capitol Records. In response to the backlash, the label ’severed ties’ with the ‘project’ and apologized to the Black community.”
And the story TechCrunch story “AI Music Generators Could Be A Boon For Artists — But Also Problematic; Stability AI, The Company Behind Stable Diffusion, Is Tackling Music” provides an update on the fast-evolving technologies (and includes samples of AI-generated music in the style of several artists). –Matthew]
AI Portraits Imagine How Celebrities Would Look If They Were Still Alive Today
By Sara Barnes
September 19, 2022
There are many celebrities who have unexpectedly passed away, long before they reached old age. You can’t help but wonder, what would they have looked like when they were older? Well, ponder no more. With the help of AI technology, photographer and lawyer Alper Yesiltas has created a series called As If Nothing Happened that seemingly brings pop culture icons back to life. Celebrities including Heath Ledger, Freddie Mercury, and Kurt Cobain have aged in a way that appears extremely believable. The generated portraits look like they recently sat to have their pictures taken.
Yesiltas is excited by the possibilities of artificial intelligence. With it, he believes that “anything imaginable can be shown real,” and it inspired him to start experimenting with it. “When I started tinkering with the technology,” he tells My Modern Met, “I saw what I could do and thought about what would make me the happiest: I wanted to see some of the people I missed again in front of me.” Thus, As If Nothing Happened was born.
Yesiltas uses various software to create his images, ranging from Remini, an AI photo enhancer, to photo editing programs including Lightroom and VSCO. They all go into creating a portrait that feels “real” to him—as if the person has transcended his imagination and now exists in the real world. This is not an easy process, nor is it a quick one. But the results are fascinating; and if you’re a fan, they’ll make you miss the person even more.
[See the original story and s]croll down to see who Yesiltas brought back to life (as if nothing had happened).
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