Does this Person Exist?

KI-Generierte Porträts und ihre prekäre Existenz im Digitalen Raum

Abstract

In this photo-theoretical article I interrogate portraits generated by NIVIDIA’s StyleGAN2. Even though these portraits are completely artificial and the pictured persons have never existed, they are surprisingly realistic and could even be read as photographs. I therefore ask the question: How do these pictures relate to the photographic and can we consider them as a new aspect of the medium? I will also present an attempt to locate these images on the Internet and discuss how they are used today. The result of this experiential localization shows that the pictures are mostly used in dubious and even criminal ways.