Why It's So Hard to Resist Turning Your Selfies Into Lensa AI Art

If you've noticed an influx of illustrated selfies--depicting people as fairy princesses, astronauts, and anime characters--popping up across social media in recent weeks, you're not alone. These AI-generated images are the product of digital editing app Lensa's new "Magic Avatars" feature, a tool that uses machine learning to create stylized portraits based on photos provided by users. Lensa has been around since 2018, but started skyrocketing in popularity when Magic Avatars launched in late November. The app saw around 13.5 million worldwide installs in the first 12 days of December, more than six times the 2 million it saw in November, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. Consumers also spent approximately $29.3 million in the app during that 12-day period, Sensor Towers reports.