Every one of the people in the images below is fake.
Philip Wang, a software engineer at Uber, made a site for generating fake faces. ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com uses an algorithm that's trained with a database of real portraits. The algorithm then uses a generative adversarial network, a type of neural network, to create a new fake face each time you refresh the site.
"Most people do not understand how good AIs will be at synthesizing images in the future," Wang told Motherboard. He wrote on Facebook he set up the site to raise awareness of the technology.
The software behind the site isn't incredibly obscure, either. The site uses a GPU (graphics card) running code published by Nvidia researchers.
» Douglas Rain, voice of HAL from '2001: A Space Odyssey,' dead at 90
According to a writeup of the tech, Nvidia's algorithm trains the AI using progressively higher-resolution images.
This GIF, courtesy of machine learning engineer Sarah Wolf, shows the process in action.
The technology could have profound implications for the future of photographic evidence. As The Verge put it, "ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com is just the polite introduction to this new technology. The rude awakening comes later."