Photo: Mike Zimmerman
At first glance, these photos may seem like your average images of people at a house party. But upon closer inspection, you may notice that many of these partygoers appear to have extra fingers or too many teeth. That's when it's clear—this party isn't real. In fact, the images are the work of developer Miles Zimmerman. He created them using the AI image generator Midjourney and then posted the results on Twitter, sparking a lot of feedback.
“Midjourney is getting crazy powerful—none of these are real photos, and none of the people in them exist,” Zimmerman wrote. While the image maker did an eerie job of creating this party, people began to pick apart the details that reveal the truth. In one photo, a woman's tattoo is completely blurry and looks like what one user called a “petri dish mold colony.”
Hands seem to be a big stumbling block for AI, as many of the partygoers have 6 or even 7 fingers. One photo even shows a hand floating in front of a door as one man holds up a cup in celebration. So, while the faces look realistic, there are some big issues with anatomy.
Photo: Mike Zimmerman
After Zimmerman posted a collection of male partygoers in the thread, he noted that it was difficult to generate the image. To produce a picture of a man, he had to try much harder. And, as is clear in the photos, diversity is not Midjourney's strong suit.
“I had to be specific in order to get male-looking AI people—and even then, variation is a challenge. It definitely defaults to white people when you ask for ‘people.’”
In fact, many people noted the homogenous look of the crowd at the house party. Some felt that everyone looked related, while others commented that the AI data set must have included a lot of high fashion magazines. Others, who had experience with Midjourney said that to get a more diverse outcome they needed to make their prompts very specific.
While Zimmerman doesn't consider himself an AI expert or artist by any means, the results he was able to achieve—even with the weird fingers—show just how powerful AI can be. His tweet is a timely reminder that now, more than ever, we need to keep our eyes open to determine what's real, and what's fiction.
While these photos may look like candid pictures from a house party, they were actually generated with Midjourney.
Midjourney is getting crazy powerful—none of these are real photos, and none of the people in them exist. pic.twitter.com/XXV6RUrrAv
— Miles (@mileszim) January 13, 2023
I had to be specific in order to get male-looking AI people—and even then, variation is a challenge. It definitely defaults to white people when you ask for “people”. pic.twitter.com/x3P0LKL7MU
— Miles (@mileszim) January 13, 2023
People quickly began noticing some of the strange details—like too many fingers—that betray the fact that they were made with AI.
Is this 6 fingers or 7? pic.twitter.com/3NbHO9QCY2
— Tracee Ellis Boss (@Dimendolla) January 15, 2023
These hands are fun and in no way do they look completely like vampires. pic.twitter.com/j2tr3xHU9H
— James ミルキー Mielke (@LimitedRunJames) January 15, 2023
“I love your tattoo of a petri dish mold colony!”
“Well, *I* love your Escher dress and off center neck!” pic.twitter.com/IB25xUVQIb
— The Wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald (@StoicalSophist) January 15, 2023
dude asking for booze from behind the door pic.twitter.com/7mzrrt4rg5
— CryptoGoat (@pumpit000) January 16, 2023
Do….do people have this many teeth? pic.twitter.com/Juref0wA0U
— James ミルキー Mielke (@LimitedRunJames) January 15, 2023
The images also stirred up conversation about bias in AI, as the “people” all seem strikingly similar—and not diverse.
Different AI engine, but I noticed immediately that it defaults to white people for “people.” To generate an image of a non-white person, I had to be very specific in the prompt: a Black person, an Asian person, etc.
— Veronica Sixsmith (@VeronicaSixsmi1) January 13, 2023
Was it trained on 1990s Abercrombie catalogs and cologne ads?
— Samuel J. Howard (@Jahaza) January 15, 2023
The difference I find really intriguing is that it can think of more than one kind of woman, but only really has one man. It's like the opposite of Disney animation! Altho obviously worth saying, it's not been fed any images of non-thin people. Some of those dudes look emaciated
— #BLM Vicky Brewster – Editor & Proofreader (@VProofreader) January 16, 2023
I'm guessing the folks at midjourney are sifting through tons of fashion magazines. The facial structures of the male and female characters is on point of the average runway models.
— Sixclaws (@DivineFlesh1) January 15, 2023
The AI seems to have a thing for Clint Eastwood, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, and Timothee Chalamet. Can't say I blame it.
I'm curious: did you ask for the Kodachrome look?
— Vaccinated + masked & fine with that. (@BullwinkleFan) January 15, 2023
These results are a good reminder to keep your eyes open for seemingly real photographs.
Pretty soon, the only way to tell will be to count the fingers. 5 and it's real, 6 it's questionable, 7 and it's definitely AI generated.
— Rural Anarchy 🧱 💥 (@Rural_Anarchy) January 14, 2023
Both this and the female version are believable for a split second as they seem to depict the kind of homogeneous white socialite 20-somethings who in reality very often look and dress very very alike.
— Ciarán Walsh (@ciarawnwalsh) January 15, 2023
h/t: [PetaPixel]
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