No one told them life was gonna be this way.
An Italian couple has used artificial intelligence to imagine “Friends” characters as toddlers.
Luca and Anna Allievi, both 33, said they started creating the images “for fun” while their 1-year-old daughter Celeste was asleep.
The youthful pictures of Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe have been doin’ so well online that the couple has pivoted to generating realistic baby photos of former President Donald Trump, British politician Boris Johnson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
“It started as a game, something we did for fun,” Luca, a bio-technologist from Milan, told SWNS. “The images are really realistic.”
Luca initially tried to imagine puppies and his own cats as characters from “Harry Potter” and other dramas.
“Luca has a fantastic imagination,” gushed Anna, who sells machinery parts. “It’s something futuristic. It’s evolving so fast.”
The creative couple used the prompts and commands in Midjourney’s software to produce pictures by referencing billions of images online.
“You need to use the right words in the prompt. The order of the words is important,” Luca explained. “You have to describe the person and adjust the prompts as the software evolves.”
The feedback on their “Friends” creations has been kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic.
The NBC sitcom aired from 1994-2004 — and it’s found a new audience on Netflix.
“They are all so cute,” one commenter proclaimed of the “Friends” photos.
Another agreed: “They are dead on. Absolutely adorable.”
The couple take requests from their fans, using AI to imagine baby Disney villains, “Harry Potter” characters, and singers.
Although Anna and Luca love the technology for their artwork, they also recognize the dangers of it.
“Sometimes it’s scary and too specific,” Anna noted.
Luca added: “It can be dangerous. Some people use it for fake news.”
In fact, a fake photo of Selena Gomez at the 2023 Met Gala became a favorite on Twitter — even though the “Only Murders in the Building” actress didn’t attend this month’s event.
And another AI experimenter recently went viral for using the technology to imagine famous historical figures such as Jesus, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I and Henry VIII taking selfies.
Source
