Generated Photos 'infinite diversity' face collection

Generated Photos is a collection of 100,000 free images of AI-generated faces to help designers who need portraits for their websites, apps or presentations. It launched in September 2019 to a mixed reception. 

The collection features headshots with consistent lighting and sizing with a wide range of angles, positions, and facial expressions, reflecting a wide variety of ethnicities, ages and face shapes to represent an 'infinite diversity.'

A large number of users praised the collection for the 'realism' and usefulness of the photos. But some described the photos as 'weird', 'stiff' and, in some instances, 'truly fucked up'. 

Others pointed out the ease with which they could be used for malicious purposes, and that they could put licensed stock photo companies and models out of business.

In a blog post, Generated Photos developer Icon8 said the company used real models to create the 'incredibly realistic' images rather than scraping from the web or using stock photographs, thereby getting round copyright issues.