Picsart's 'Replace My Ex' is the most savage AI art tool yet
Snakes don't hiss.
AI art is arguably the most contentious topic in the world of art and design right now. For every seemingly innocuous image of a bird with human hands, there's a debate over the ethics and copyright issues surrounding the tech. But hey, at least now you can replace your ex with a snake!
Picsart, one of our best graphic design tools, has revealed Replace My Ex – a novel application of its fairly standard AI Replace tool. In various examples, ex-partners are transformed into snakes, red flags and, er, baguettes.
"We’ve all been there," Picsart says. "You have a photo where you look super cute, but it’s tainted by the presence of someone no longer in your life. You’d rather not see or think about them, but don’t necessarily want to delete the hundreds (or even thousands) of photos you have together. Whether it’s your ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend or just ex-friend, Picsart’s AI Replace allows you to replace people in photos with virtually anything you can think of. It’s super easy and can be done in just a few seconds with no design skills required."
Currently available on iOS only, AI Replace lets the user describe brush over an object, then describe in words what they wish to replace it with ("i.e. a snake, a red flag, a dog, a burrito").
But it's essential to note that for many, AI generated art isn't simply fun and games. As well as questions surrounding its existential threat to artists, there are issues over copyright. Recently, hugely popular AI app Lensa has been accused of spitting out AI "art" with evidence of the original artists' signature still visible. And then there's the issue of over-sexualised AI art.
Indeed, it seems new AI art controversies are emerging every day right now. From last month's ArtStation protests to Getty banning AI-generated images from its library over copyright concerns and people using the tools to copy specific artists' styles, the tech is causing all manner of disturbance online.
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.