My Top 10 AI Images of 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - #7 Celebrity Not-Quite-Right-Look-A-Like

To me, nothing is more impressive than when an AI program successfully captures the likeness of a famous person. However, AI companies are now striving to limit this aspect of image generation due to the growing threat of Deep Fakes in multimedia. If left unchecked, this could lead to worsening political scenarios, increased legal actions from celebrities regarding the misuse of their likenesses, and a general rise in public deception, fueling falsehoods and conspiracies. This could potentially lead to complete anarchy in a world already susceptible to misinformation.

This image doesn’t quite look like Joey Heatherton, but it captures the style of her time.
The green smoky background, black dress, bobbed hair, and mystic pose makes this a fantastic image.

Most American-based AI sites, tend to not do great exact likenesses. They do permit likeness usage generally as a reference in prompts to generate similar-looking characters. But if referring to anyone famous in your prompt, the censorship restrictions are usually maximized. (This is not true from many foreign AI sites, especially those based in Japan.)

In this particular case, I referred to a lesser-known celebrity from the early '70s who I saw on TV all of the time on variety, talk, and game shows as a kid: Joey Heatherton. (Not only was she cute, sexy, and bubbly — she was the inspiration to Catherine O’Hara’s character, Lola Heatherton, one of my all-time favorite comedy shows, SCTV.)

Catherine O’Hara as the over-the-top-manic-laughing, Lola Heatherton, on SCTV in the late ’70s
Yes, that's Catherine O'Hara, known for Home Alone, Beetlejuice, Best of Show, and Schitt's Creek.

My Top 10 AI Images of 2023 - - - - - - - - - - - #6 Capt. Billy Buttons

I have a favorite character I created for a children's book named Captain Billy Buttons, who is a pirate and serves as my company mascot for my ARRRGGGHHH Ink illustrations on social media. When experimenting with AI, I typed his name into an AI art generator just to get an idea of who AI thought the name represented. The result was unexpected and insane. 

AI interpreted "Captain Billy Buttons" quite literally, covering the character with colorful, button-like pox, resembling a vibrant candy infection from a Willie Wonka candy factory. His expression is one of great surprise yet he remains at attention, as if he's bravely posing for this photograph despite his unusual appearance. 

This outcome was a delightful surprise, transforming my silly pirate name into something so whimsically bizarre. Love it!