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In 1970, Professor Masahiro Mori wrote an intriguing paper introducing the concept of the “uncanny valley.” According to Mori, a person’s response to a robot would transition from affinity to revulsion as the robot became more human-like.
Toy robots are beloved by children, as they are clearly distinguishable from living creatures. However, when physical robots or digital avatars closely resemble humans, it generates a sense of unease.
But what happens when our artificial creations become so convincingly human-like that they pass through the uncanny valley? In the digital world, we are about to find out.
Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence image-creation tools, like Dall-E 2 and Runway, have allowed the production of striking synthetic videos featuring counterfeit humans. Although not yet indistinguishable from real humans, these videos are making their mark.
One example is “The Frost,” a 12-minute experimental film created by Waymark, a Detroit-based video company. Using Dall-E 2, a human writer fed a script into the AI system, which generated every shot in the movie. The result is an entertaining, albeit unsettling, film about stranded explorers in Antarctica that leans more towards animation than reality TV.
Scriptwriters and actors in the US have expressed their unease about the growing use of AI, leading to strikes and calls for restrictions on its application in Hollywood studios and streaming services. However, independent filmmakers at the Runway AI film festival in New York have embraced the creative possibilities and cost-effective nature of generative AI models. The film-maker Paul Trillo, for example, expressed excitement about the potential of these technologies.
While generative AI isn’t capable of producing entire films like this summer’s blockbusters, such as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” it is already contributing to the creation of unique music videos and commercial advertisements for brands like Bud Light, Uber, Nike, and Terry’s chocolate.
For instance, the London company Private Island produced a surreal beer commercial called “Synthetic Summer,” which quickly became an internet meme. It highlighted the peculiar imperfections of generative AI as viewers’ faces fused with their beer bottles, offering an amusing foray into the uncanny valley.
Politicians have also harnessed generative AI to create synthetic images. During the US presidential campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign team released a video featuring seemingly fake photos of Donald Trump embracing Anthony Fauci. The accessibility and low cost of producing targeted videos on a large scale have contributed to the proliferation of such images.
According to Wasim Khaled, co-founder of New York-based start-up Blackbird AI, the uncanny valley has already been surpassed in the realm of still images. A survey conducted by the Syzygy Group media company in Germany revealed that only 8% of respondents correctly identified a real human face when compared to three AI-generated images. It’s only a matter of time before moving images overcome the uncanny valley as well.
However, Khaled argues that the internet has already distorted our perception of reality. The images we encounter daily, such as photoshopped Instagram pictures and retouched magazine covers, heavily influence AI training. AI is not a perfect representation of humanity but a digital exaggeration or distortion of what we truly are.
This raises the possibility of entering a world where artificial reality appears more authentic than reality itself. While this may sound alarming, some artists would not find it odd. As Pablo Picasso once famously said, “Everything you can imagine is real.” Machines continually push the boundaries of our imagination.
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