Artificial intelligence is quickly altering the world around us.
Big changes are coming to movies and TV because of AI, and plenty of people are already having fun creating wild imagery with it (like asking AI to reimagine “Toy Story” with real people).
One trend is using it to develop optical illusions, and one such example that’s caught on in a big way is a photo of two women holding pizza that looks like Nicolas Cage (if you squint pretty hard).
While it can often be difficult to pinpoint the origins of such images, it seems that this one was first posted on LinkedIn by David Martínez Trigo on April 11 and subsequently entered meme status on platforms like Facebook and TikTok over the next few days. Some people see other figures within the illusion, including Jared Leto, Jim Morrison, Keanu Reeves, and Jesus Christ.
No matter who you see, though, the actual content of the photo exemplifies one of the many things AI does wrong when generating images, namely having an excessive number of arms and hands.
In another example, inspired by Martínez Trigo’s LinkedIn post, Redditor u/LucidCid, uploaded a conversation with ChatGPT asking it to create a similar illusion, and it merely put Nicolas Cage’s head in the center of a photo among some trees, clear as day.
Pizza Nicolas Cage … meet shrimp Jesus
AI optical illusions have blown up the Internet no doubt thanks to a plethora of apps that make such images easier to create than ever.
That being said, the technology still has a ways to go to produce genuinely impressive results, the gimmick with most of these being that viewers must squint their eyes to where they’re practically closed to see the intended effect.
Additionally, the content of the images tends to be utterly horrifying. But while two Cronenbergian women holding pizza is one thing, a far more obscure trend is taking over social media.
As detailed by author Jason Pargin on TikTok, numerous Facebook accounts have begun posting AI-generated images of Jesus Christ, many of which feature sea creatures. Despite how off-putting they can be, they often receive thousands of likes, which begs the question of if those likes come from bots.
And if bots are also creating these images, then Facebook is filled with posts of bots liking other bots’ content, meaning the Dead Internet theory is alive and well. And yet plenty of real Facebook users are interacting with posts of shrimp Jesus as well.
If the idea that AI is creating more content than human beings terrifies you, you’re not alone. Nicolas Cage himself detests AI, telling Yahoo! Entertainment, “AI is a nightmare to me. It’s inhumane.”
So let it be a comfort to all that even though his Superman cameo was among the most embarrassing CGI moments in “The Flash,” it wasn’t generated by artificial intelligence.