Microsoft Research Asia has unveiled a new experimental AI tool called VASA-1 that can take a still image of a person -- or the drawing of one -- and an existing audio file to create a lifelike talking face out of them in real time. It has the ability to generate facial expressions and head motions for an existing still image and the appropriate lip movements to match a speech or a song. The researchers uploaded a ton of examples on the project page, and the results look good enough that they could fool people into thinking that they're real. While the lip and head motions in the examples could still look a bit robotic and out of sync upon closer inspection, it's still clear that the technology could be misused to easily and quickly create deepfake videos of real people. The researchers themselves are aware of that potential and have decided not to release "an online demo, API, product, additional implementation details, or any related offerings" until they're sure that their technology "will be used responsibly and in accordance with proper regulations."

When people think about artificial intelligence, they rarely imagine the technology being used to sift through complex data sheets or find out how many people buy something because of a billboard, or figure out when a dog has sniffed cancer cells. That's typically the kind of thing AI is being used for these days – and while they're all cool, the common Dick and Jane probably aren't getting all too hyped up about it. However, hope is not lost for dreamers wishing for a Bradbury-esque future of machines creating things that are cool, even to the layman. There exists a growing field in AI technology devoted to "synthetic media" – art, content and creative materials that have been produced by an artificially intelligent creator. The current buzz in synthetic media is centered around AI image generation, with platforms such as DALL-E, CrAIyon and Midjourney leading the pack in the creation of art based on text prompts. Israeli start-up D-ID is the pioneer of a slightly different spin on the idea: taking a still photo of someone and turning it into a talking video.

D-ID, the company whose tech powers the MyHeritage app, has demonstrated a new use for its technology. Called "Speaking Portrait," it allows any photo to be animated with uncanny realism and is capable of saying whatever the user wants. MyHeritage first made headlines in 2020 with its "Photo Enhancer" tool that used artificial intelligence to restore old family photos. Earlier this year, MyHeritage took its work a step further and developed Deep Nostaliga, which is capable of animating people from photographs. Noted in PetaPixel's original coverage, the AI at the core of the app was licensed from D-ID which specializes in video reenactment using deep learning.

To create a cartoon effect, we need to pay attention to two things; edge and color palette. Those are what make the differences between a photo and a cartoon. Before jumping to the main steps, don't forget to import the required libraries in your notebook, especially cv2 and NumPy. The first main step is loading the image. Define the read_file function, which includes the cv2_imshow to load our selected image in Google Colab.

An undergraduate student from China's Fudan University showcased a new artificial intelligence (AI) software that can turn regular human photos into an anime masterpiece using the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) and Deep Learning method. Yanghua Jin is attempting to create a computer program that can learn from its own mistakes the longer it works. This is all done using GAN's two networks: the generator and the discriminator, according to SoraNews24. The generator is in charge of producing the anime picture that runs through the software. It uses attributes taken from anime images, such as hair and eye color, whether the hair is long or short, and whether the mouth is open or not, and studies them.