The Terrifying Thing AI Did to My Hands

I used the Lensa AI photo app and all I can say is WHAT THE FUDGE?!

I used Lensa AI and it did unspeakable things to my hands. Just have a look and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Remember in Succession when Logan Roy fired off the solidest burn ever when he told his kids he loved them, but “you’re not serious people?”

Welp, I’m not a serious person either, and that’s how I find myself entangled in bonkers-level shenanigans on the regular. 

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As an example, I’m writing this to detail my disturbing encounters with an Artificial Intelligence portrait app, Lensa AI. I love poking around with digital technology when it comes out. I was an early adopter of Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok, I was getting ChatGPT to write stuff for me before it was a household name.

I share these anecdotes not to prove my street cred (I’m a Toronto mom who gardens and goes to bed at 10pm, therefore I have none) but rather to admit that I bore easily and am always looking for silly diversions.

For gigs I decided to use the Lensa AI app to joozh up some portraits of me. It made this one, which I thought was quite nice.

But the others? Oh boy. I’m gonna show you, so these photos can haunt you, too! You’re welcome. I’m nothing if not a generous friend. 

I’m just going to title this:
WHAT DID IT DO TO MY HANDS?????

Let’s have a look, shall we?

I had to select 10 selfies from my photo roll, and yes I’m not proud I have 10+ recent selfies but here we are, and upload them to the Lensa AI app. Then I paid $4.99 for a pack of 100 “avatars.” These avatars are actually AI-enhanced photos. My hands were not visible in any of the photos I sent in (as I said, they were selfies), but that’s ok, AI made some truly terrifying claws for me. Have a gander below of a sampling of what I got back.

First photo: This is a passable rendering of my face, right? For reference, here’s a recent actual photo of me from a prior post. The app forgot to delete the Airpods I was wearing but I can look past that. IRL, I have one arched eyebrow and one curved one, and Lensa AI accurately picked up on that.

Now, let’s take a closer look at MY HANDS!

What the FUDGE IS THIS? ⬆️ A hand grew out of my hand? I’m confused. And disturbed.

Moving on…I like my hair in this one ⬇️ The Lensa app nailed my 2a/2b wave pattern, and I appreciate the snatched waist that I definitely do not have…

But why do I have so many fingers? 😱 And why are they so curly?

Look at how romantic this photo is ⬇️ I mean, one of my eyes looks like it’s halfway to closing from severe pollen allergies, but again, I can look past that.

Let’s take a gander at the old paws though…

WHAT? IS? THIS? A preview of when my hands becoming gnarled by arthritis in twenty years and I mysteriously grow a third arm? Unclear.

And finally, while I appreciate the dream bod Scarlett Johansson proportions it’s given me while hating the strange bag it added (again) under only one eye, in this photo below…

Let’s take a closer look at my HANDS!…

PLEASE SOMEONE BURN THE CONES AND RODS IN MY EYES. I CAN’T. The twisted, origami-folded fingers are not even holding the flower? Excuse me while I go and barf into a bag.

Anyway, what’s up with this weird hand business? I looked into it and apparently AI is notorious at not being able to draw hands, or feet:

“The AI drawing hands issue has been going on for so long that it has now become a running joke. If you don’t know yet, spoiler alert: AI can’t draw human hands or feet properly,” writes Jim Nightingale in Dataconomy (read it here).

Hands are difficult to draw even with a pen

“One of the most challenging aspects of traditional drawing is creating a convincing hand. They are among the most challenging things to represent because of the complexity of their geometry,” writes Nightingale. So, humans struggle to draw hands, and AI can’t really do it at all. All of a sudden I’m a little less worried about the Intelligence level of so-called Artificial Intelligence.

I also wonder why Lensa bothered to AI-generate hands in some of these images, it could have easily stuck to portraits only. Or why generate hands from scratch, just paste on some existing ones? There’s gotta be some (more) art it can steal that can do that, no?

Anyway, the other shame here is that I actually have quite nice hands, I’d give them a 7.8 out of ten. I could have been a D-list hand model back in the day! Harry Winston wouldn’t be booking me to model princess-cut diamond solitaires, but you could have stuck some Lee Press-Ons on my paws (my nails are only so-so), and I could have modeled a budget vacuum cleaner or something. Perhaps it’s not too late, I could be a Mature Hand Model. Is hearing this a surprise from someone who also has 10+ selfies in her photo roll? I think not.

Hope you enjoyed that everyone!

Warmly,

Helen

P.S. In case you missed it, I recently wrote about my Sephora Sample Haul!