We now have the power to create people who never existed. AI-generated faces, built from vast datasets of real human features, can look startlingly lifelike. They can smile, pose, and even express emotions. And yet, behind those digital eyes, there’s nothing—no memories, no past, no soul. It’s like playing with ghosts of people who were never born.
The Allure of Creating the Unreal.
I am now learning how to use Leonardo.ai. It feels like a creative superpower. With just a few clicks, I can summon a parade of unique individuals: a wise-looking old man, a bright-eyed child, a woman with an enigmatic smile. Endless possibilities.
Yet, the more I engage with these fabricated faces, the more unsettling the experience becomes. Unlike paintings or cartoons, AI-generated people don’t feel like interpretations—they feel real. Too real.
The Uncanny Valley: When Artificial Becomes Too Authentic.
The term “uncanny valley” was first introduced by Masahiro Mori, a Japanese roboticist, in 1970. He observed that as robots or artificial beings become more humanlike, people’s emotional responses to them increase—until a certain point. When the resemblance becomes too close but still imperfect, the emotional response sharply dips into discomfort and eeriness. Mori initially described this phenomenon in relation to robots, but it has since been widely applied to AI-generated faces, digital avatars, and even CGI characters in films. His theory suggests that our brains are wired to detect subtle inconsistencies in human appearance, making us instinctively uneasy when something appears almost—but not quite—real.
A cartoon character with exaggerated features is charming. A CGI face that looks almost human—but not quite—feels eerie. AI-generated faces exist right in that valley. They have the softness of real skin, the sparkle of human eyes, and the imperfections of reality. But they lack something crucial: authenticity. They have no story, no history. They are lifelike, yet lifeless.
Ethical Questions: Who Are These People?
Beyond the emotional strangeness, AI-generated people raise ethical questions. If an AI-created face is too realistic, could it be mistaken for a real person? What happens when fake identities are used in deepfakes or misinformation? And who owns a face that belongs to no one?
Without knowing who they are, we have already started to use them. For advertising, modeling, for faces to chatbots, for our own depravity. Some are disposable – used once and forgotten. While the lucky or unlucky ones live on and are, at best, given new lives and purposes, and at worse, abused to unimaginable horrors.
Who were they before they were generated? Are we playing with their ghosts?
Leaning into the Surreal? Nah.
Masahiro Mori recommended that we should seek “to create a safe level of affinity by deliberately pursuing a nonhuman design” for our creations. He cited eyeglasses as an example that serves its purpose but also enhances (sometimes I guess) the stylishness of the way we look. Or to design stylish, fashion-forward prosthetics that enhance the wearer’s aesthetic and confidence instead of chasing “as life-like as possible”.
It’s safe to say we have already blown past that with the recent humanoid robot and China’s many unpublicized on-going efforts. In the end, there will be something for everyone. Functional and stylish, sentient Hello Kitties, and like-like ghosts in shells (sorry had to reference this somehow).
The Future of Digital Ghosts
As AI technology advances, the line between real and artificial will only blur further. Perhaps, in the future, AI-generated people will become common in everyday media, and the eerie feeling will fade. Or maybe, no matter how advanced AI gets, we will always sense that something is missing—some spark of real existence that no algorithm can replicate.
Generating AI faces is a strange, fascinating, and slightly haunting experience. It reminds me of how deeply we connect with human faces—not just for their appearance, but for the stories, emotions, and lives behind them.
I stare at these ghosts that I have created. And, for now, they just stare back.
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