Prisma uses AI to turn your photos into graphic novel fodder double quick

AI is coming for your paintbrush too… A new iOS app, called Prisma, is using deep learning algorithms to turn smartphone photos into stylized artworks based on different artwork/graphical styles. Snap or choose your photo, select an'art filter' to be applied and then wait as the app works its algorithmic magic -- returning your stylized image in a matter of seconds, along with options to share it to your social networks. So if you've ever wanted your bedroom to resemble a rotoscope animation, or your selfie to have shades of manga, or your hopeless sketching skills not to hold back your yearning to create a web comic then Prisma is definitely the app for you… Prisma was launched only last week but has already garnered some 1.6 million downloads, CEO and co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov tells TechCrunch, on the phone from Moscow where the team is currently based. The key to this early growth is clearly the app's prominently placed social share function, which prompts users to post to Instagram as soon as they receive their processed shot. And just this week the Facebook-owned photo-sharing behemoth revealed it had more than doubled its monthly active users over the past two years -- reaching a whopping 500 million MAUs.