The brand manager at my new job recently asked if I could provide her with a current headshot to include on our company intranet. Because I work in very corporatey settings doing very corporatey things, one might reasonably expect me to have this sort of thing at the ready. Unfortunately, before quitting my last job, I forgot to send myself a copy of the headshot that I simply kept on file there.
I don’t particularly fancy having my picture taken, so I’m not inclined to run out and get a new headshot. I’m not picking on myself, as I’m generally fine with my looks in real life, but let’s just say that if Severus Snape and Laura Dern had a baby, it would grow up to look like photo-me.
If you believe our phones are always listening to us, you will not be surprised that I soon after received an ad in my social feed for remarkably authentic AI-generated headshots. The samples sincerely looked like nice headshots generated as believable composites of normal people’s photos. After paying a nominal fee, I submitted six photos of my face from various snapshots I have on file, and just over an hour later, I I was absolutely delighted to see the results. This is for sure the most entertaining $5 I’ve spent in ages:
In the interest of full disclosure, I confess I’ve witheld the few AI photos I received where, instead of missing a limb or having seven-fingered hands that look like McDonald’s French Toast sticks, I merely looked too young. And by “too young,” I mean too young for a headshot of a woman who has 30 years of work experience and the scowl-wrinkles to prove it. While I got a thorough kick out of what appears to have been the Wish version of AI photography, I’m absolutely positive–and strangely relieved–I’m still going to need a real-life photographer in the end. (Go, team human beings!)
The Second Magpie 