I used Google's new AI Art Selfie feature to become a 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'
- Google just brought back its Art Selfie feature — with a generative AI upgrade.
- Users can reimagine selfies in the style of famous paintings.
Since generative AI took the world by storm, we've seen myriad ways to reimagine the human face, from Lensa's self-portraits to convincing digital renditions of real people.
Personally, though, I've been waiting for a tool that helps users see themselves in famous works of art.
Earlier this week, Google launched Art Selfie 2 — a new feature under its Arts & Culture app that uses generative AI to blend your selfies into over 25 artistic styles.
You can see how you'd look in a Renaissance painting, as an attendee at Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party," or Johannes Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring."
Art Selfie 2 is a revamp of a feature Google launched in 2018, which compared your selfies with famous works of art. The original tool relied on computer vision and machine learning to give users an estimate of how well your face matched a particular painting. Business Insider reached out to Google for additional comment on the specific AI technology its new tool relies on.
Here's what it's like to use the Art Selfie 2 feature.
Start by downloading Google's Arts & Culture app.
Art Selfie 2 is part of Google's Arts & Culture app, a platform for art and cultural content from over 2,000 cultural institutions. Google first launched the app back in 2016 intending to make it easier for users to learn about specific art pieces.
The revamp, however, was born out of Google's Artists in Residence program, which commissions artists to create original artworks in a range of Google spaces across the world.
Take a selfie and choose an artistic style.
I've always been a fan of Vermeer so I opted for the "Vermeer's Pearl Earring" style.
Aside from this being a pretty liberal interpretation of the original painting, I was surprised by how well Art Selfie 2 integrated my picture into the style. It looks more like I took a picture wearing a colorful, 17th-century Dutch outfit instead of an AI-generated selfie. I could also see this as a good resource for anyone who needs inspiration in choosing a Halloween costume.
Art Selfie 2 also provides context on each artistic style.
The identity of the "girl" in the painting has been a point of speculation among art historians for years, and to me, that only adds to the intrigue of the potentially millions of people who will substitute their faces into Art Selfie 2's interpretation.
It's also great if you need a laugh.
I kept laughing at my desk every time I looked at my selfies …hopefully, I didn't disturb my colleagues too much.
Google's latest AI art tool is a great way to entertain yourself between meetings or a fun outlet if you ever need a laugh. It was a good reminder never to take yourself too seriously.
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