A man in the United States recently revealed that he fooled his friends and family when he faked a whole month of his life on social media using artificial intelligence (AI).
Kyle Vorbach, a Los Angeles-based writer, director and content creator, made realistic images using a tool that creates AI-based content.
Vorbach confessed that every photo that he posted on Instagram for a month was generated using AI. He even faked a trip to New York City.
It all began when Vorbach wanted a new social media profile picture last October. He had previously generated realistic images of his Maltese dog using AI. Vorbach figured, if he can create life-like images of his pet, why not his own image? But it was going to be a lot harder to fake a human face as compared to that of an animal.
Vorbach had been told by an acquaintance that he resembled actor Ryan Gosling. He learnt that while creating AI-based images, one gets more believable results if the software was to told to create an image based on the looks of a well-known face. So Ryan Gosling it was. And thus, the man created an AI-generated photo of himself after several attempts, and used it as his profile picture on social media.
Vorbach described the image as “easily one of the best pictures I have ever taken. And I never even had to leave my bed”.
Excited with the success of his AI-generated photo, he posted pictures of himself generated entirely with AI for the next couple of weeks. An AI-generated Halloween costume, an entire fake trip to New York City, generated on AI, a meet-up with a friend who was also created using AI were some of the things he posted online.
His followers believed his pictures.
“Although I had successfully tricked everyone I know, my pictures were getting less and less likes, I noticed… I realised if you don’t know my posts are fake, then they just seem incredibly boring. Just photos of Ryan Gosling person smiling and smiling and smiling,” Vorbach said in a YouTube video.
“Then it hit me. If I’m already generating my pictures, why not generate a whole new life. A life where I moved back to LA, a life where I lived in a really nice apartment, and so did my dog. A life where I could afford a really nice car. A life where my career finally takes off. A life where my career finally takes off. A life where I might even run into a random celebrity. A better life.”
It took a lot of effort to create this alternate, fake life using AI. Vorbach sifted through thousands of images day and night. Everytime he got a ‘like’ for his image, he got an endorphin high.
Eventually, he was disillusioned with the whole act as he did not know where he “stopped and Ryan Gosling person began”.
This is when he decided to come clean and confessed to his friends that what they saw about him on social media in the past month was entirely fake.
