Nathan Shipley is using artificial intelligence to bring historical figures to life, in ways we’ve never seen before. Most of these figures lived far before the advent of photography, so there are no photographic records of them, only paintings and drawings. His clever use of AI is making these figures photorealistic for the first time. And in doing so, he’s breathing unique life into them.
We caught up with Shipley to discuss his latest work, which builds on years of research using GAN, or Generative adversarial networks. It’s a growing field of study, and one that will surely impact our lives in the coming years.
Marie Antoinette
Shipley explains some of his education and process for this unique work:
“I definitely can’t claim full credit for this process – it is built on code that researchers have generously released. However, I have done my own modifications to that code and am building a custom library of face attributes that I can use to direct the output. My favorite part of these kinds of processes is learning how they work, how to use them, and then how to break them or use them for techniques not originally imagined!”
It’s still somewhat surreal to see William Shakespeare or Marie Antoinette as a photorealistic person, and we’re struck by how accurate the models seem to be.
Marie Antoinette
William Shakespeare
Shipley is quick to say these visual experiments aren’t saying “this is what William Shakespeare looked like”
“I consider these recreations to be experiments that I am sharing publicly. The AI doesn’t “know” what Shakespeare really looked like, but it’s fascinating to see how this particular combination of variables can come together to give us a glimpse!”
Check out more of his impressive work with StyleGAN below, and be sure to follow Nathan Shipley’s fascinating work on his website and Instagram.
Images used with artist’s permission.
George Washington
Anne Bolyen
Queen Elizabeth I
Princess Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth I
Mary Tudor, AKA “Bloody Mary”
Edward VI
Henry VIII
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Ulysses S. Grant
Andrew Jackson
Rembrandt
Mona Lisa
Neat to look at, but the software seems to be limited with eyes. The shape of the eyes on the realistic images do not follow the images on quite a few; Benjamin Franklin, Henry VIII, Mona Lisa. The eyes are so important to creating an image that looks like the person.
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