LOOK: Strange ‘Ghost Woman’ is Haunting Artificial Intelligence Artwork

By
Mark Stevens
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0
22

As the human race continues to create new online spaces, a sort of “digital dimension” is taking shape.

And, no:  I don’t mean in the hokey-avatar-ridden Metaverse, which is genuinely nothing more than a personal version of The Sims video game series.  What we’re talking about here is the place where we do all of our banking and our communication.  Where we find out about the goings-on around town, and where we purchase tickets to concerts and sporting events.

Heck, we’re even making art in the digital dimension now, as artificially intelligent algorithms such as Craiyon churn out uncanny pieces of simply invented designs.

But, as with anything adjacent to A.I., there are concerns that these algorithms could go off the deep end, on their own, and threaten our digital or literal lives.

Now, in a spooky bit of worrisome reiteration of this possibility, a strange woman named “Loab” appears to be haunting several digital works of art.

Earlier this month, Twitter user Supercomposite posted a thread of spooky images featuring a woman she calls “Loab,” who usually has red cheeks and dark, hollow eyes. Since then, the images, which range from unsettling to grotesque, have gone viral.

The images of Loab all come from an artificial intelligence (A.I.) art tool. These tools, like DALL-E 2, create images based on text prompts users input into the platform—and they are having a cultural moment as of late. Just last month, a piece of A.I.-created art won the Colorado State Fair art competition. Plenty of artists are experimenting with such tools to merge art with technology and create new, avant-garde pieces.

The images grew ever more troubling as they came.

These first images of Loab aren’t particularly frightening. But when Supercomposite began combining them with other neutral images—like a glass tunnel—horrifically unsettling images materialized.

“Supercomposite took those first creepy images of Loab and essentially told the A.I., ‘Hey, draw me something new with this woman as a base,”’ writes CNET’s Jackson Ryan. “That spawned all types of macabre and gory images.”

Supercomposite wasn’t willing to reveal which A.I. art program she was using when Loab was created, but plenty of images of the internet specter as available on social media.

Look…if you dare:

 

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