A robotic face representing the risks of AI avatars.

AI Avatars: Fun Trend or Major Privacy Risk?

Published on June 17, 2024

You've seen them all over social media: stunning, stylized portraits of your friends as astronauts, fantasy heroes, or anime characters. AI avatar generators have exploded in popularity, offering a fun way to see yourself in a new light. But before you upload your next batch of selfies, it's worth asking: what's the real price of that cool new profile picture?

How Does It Work?

These apps typically use a powerful type of AI called a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) or a diffusion model. You upload 10-20 photos of yourself, and the AI trains a mini-model on your facial features. It then uses this model to generate brand new images of you in virtually any style imaginable. The results are impressive, but the process requires a significant amount of your personal data.

The Data You're Giving Away

The core of the transaction isn't a few dollars; it's your biometric data. By uploading your photos, you are providing these companies with a detailed dataset of your face from multiple angles and in various lighting conditions. This is highly sensitive personal information.

What Are the Risks?

While many companies claim to delete your photos after training the AI, the terms of service can be vague. The potential risks include:

Data Breaches: If the company's servers are hacked, your facial data could be stolen and used for malicious purposes.
Building Facial Recognition Databases: Your data could be sold or used to train larger, more powerful facial recognition models without your explicit consent.
Identity Theft and Deepfakes: A detailed model of your face is a goldmine for creating convincing deepfakes, which could be used to impersonate you online.

How to Stay Safer

If you still want to try the trend, you can take steps to mitigate the risk:

Read the Privacy Policy: Look for clear language about when and how your data is deleted.
Use a Reputable App: Stick to well-known apps that have been reviewed by tech journalists.
Limit Permissions: Don't grant the app access to your entire photo library or contacts if it's not necessary.

AI-generated art is an exciting field, but as with any new technology, it's crucial to proceed with caution. Your digital identity is valuable—make sure you know who you're sharing it with. And for any image you're unsure about, you can always use a tool like The Picture Inspector to check its authenticity.