An Instagram photographer who raked in thousands of followers thanks to his stunning portraits has admitted that they are actually fake. The apparent'photos' were created by Midjourney - a software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate images - and touched up on Photoshop. Jos Avery, from the US, even gave each figure a name, geotag and moving story that he added in the image captions, but these are marked as fictional. The photorealistic, black-and-white images saw his Instagram account, @averyseasonart, gain nearly 29,000 followers since he first posted in October. However, after admitting the images were AI generated, he has received some backlash from followers who felt tricked.

Is the AI photo app trend already over? Over the past several months, AI-powered photo apps have been going viral on the App Store as consumers explored AI powered–experiences like Lensa AI's "magic avatars" feature and other apps promising to turn text into images using AI tech. But new data from app intelligence firm Apptopia indicates consumer interest in AI photo apps has fallen as quickly as it rose. The firm analyzed top AI photo apps worldwide, tracking both their download growth and in-app consumer spending. In its analysis shared with TechCrunch, Apptopia examined the leading AI photo app Lensa AI and others, including Voi, Remini, Pixelup, Fotor, Wonder, FacePlay, Aiby, FaceApp, Gradient, Dawn AI, Facetune, Prequel, Voilà AI Artist, New Profile Pic Avatar Maker, and Meitu.

We can easily drown in water. But it has no intent. And the challenge that humans face when it comes to water is learning to swim, building boats and dams, and finding ways to wield its power. "You can make two images, and it's cool, but you make 100,000 images, and you have an actual physical sensation of drowning," says Holz in an interview with Fortune. "So we are trying to figure out how do you teach people to swim? And how do you build these boats that let them navigate and be empowered and sort of sail the ocean of imagination, instead of just drowning?"

Lensa AI's popularity has had a notable impact on the App Store's Top Charts. The popular photo and video editing app recently went viral over its new "magic avatars" feature, powered by the open source Stable Diffusion model, allowing users to turn their selfies into styled portraits of themselves as sci-fi, anime, or fantasy characters, among other artistic renderings. Consumer demand for the app, and for AI edits more broadly, has now pushed numerous other "AI" apps into the U.S. App Store's Top Charts. As of Monday, the top three spots on the U.S. App Store are all held by AI photo editors, and even more AI art apps are newly ranking in the Top 100. The No. 1 spot on the U.S. App Store, however, continues to be held by Lensa AI, which saw 12.6 million global installs in the first 11 days of December, up 600% from the 1.8 million installs it saw during a similar time frame in November (November 20 through November 30), according to new data from App Store intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Self-flattery is pushing AI into the mainstream. But should you join the thousands of people who are experimenting with AI portraiture? This new trend, enabled by an app called Lensa AI, raises some very difficult questions about craft, consent, and bias. How Does Lensa AI Work? Developed by Prisma Labs, the Lensa AI app (iOS/Android) launched in 2018 and offers several photo retouching features.

Over the past one week, Lensa AI -- an artificial intelligence-powered image filter app -- has raised a storm on social media platforms. The cause of the storm -- after AI image generation platforms such as Midjourney created noise by creating pieces of art based on a few words of text, Lensa AI has given AI in art a new spin by turning users' selfies into virtuoso works of art. However, the social media storm has also seen many raise concerns with the service -- and what it means for user privacy and data security. What is the Lensa AI app? Lensa AI is actually not a new app, but its recent spell of popularity stems from a recent update to its core technology. The app is built by Prisma Labs -- a California-based AI developer that also shot to popularity five years ago with another of its apps, called Prisma.

This week, many of us saw our social media feeds taken over by colorful, surreal pictures of people we follow, except they don't quite look like themselves. The images were generated by Lensa AI, and it's the latest in what feels like a now-annual trend to use a new app to create mockups of your face in various scenarios. Alongside Lensa, some folks also saw blocks of text from another AI generator, ChatGPT. So on this episode of the podcast, Devindra and Cherlynn chat the appeal, implications and possible future of these types of AI, before being joined by Engadget editor-at-large James Trew for a check in on the state of action cameras. Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice.

Has the stale selfie that's served as your profile picture gone a little too long without a refresh? You've likely seen friends using the Lensa AI app to create colorful, custom cartoon images of themselves as ethereal fairies or stern astronauts. Prisma Labs, the company behind Lensa, went viral back in 2016 with a similar (albeit less powerful) app that turned smartphone pics into paintings. The release of Lensa's "magic avatars" feature is a global hit for the company. Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence allow the app to produce more impressive and varied results than its predecessor.

Officially, the Lensa AI app creates "magic avatars" that turn a user's selfies into lushly-stylized works of art. It's been touted by celebrities such as Chance the Rapper, Tommy Dorfman, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Britney Spears' husband, Sam Asghari. But for many women the app does more than just spit out a pretty picture: the final results are highly sexualized, padding women's breasts and turning their bodies into hourglass physiques. "Is it just me or are these AI selfie generator apps perpetuating misogyny?" "Here are a few I got just based off of photos of my face."

If you are using social media regularly, chances are you've come across some artistic renditions of other users over the past few days. That's thanks to the latest viral sensation Lensa AI, a photo-editing app using artificial intelligence to create what it calls "magic avatars". Having been fed 10 to 20 photos of any person, the app uses the open-source Stable Diffusion model to create realistic avatars of that person that look like they were made by an artist. Because there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and sure enough users eventually have to pay at least $3.99 for their own "magic avatars". There are some impressive results floating around though, which is why users are excused for being tempted into paying the fee to find out what their digital counterparts look like.