StyleGAN


StyleGAN is a novel generative adversarial network introduced by Nvidia researchers in December 2018, and made source available in February 2019.
StyleGAN depends on Nvidia's CUDA software, GPUs and TensorFlow.

History

In December 2018, Nvidia researchers distributed a preprint with accompanying software introducing StyleGAN, a GAN for producing an unlimited number of portraits of fake human faces. StyleGAN was able to run on Nvidia's commodity GPU processors. In February 2019, Uber engineer Phillip Wang used the software to create "thispersondoesnotexist.com", which created a new face on each web page reload. Wang himself has expressed amazement, given that humans are evolved to specifically understand human faces, that nevertheless StyleGAN can competitively "pick apart all the relevant features and recompose them in a way that's coherent." Similarly, two faculty at the University of Washington's Information School used StyleGAN to create "whichfaceisreal.com", which challenged visitors to differentiate between a fake and a real face side-by-side. The faculty stated the intention was to "educate the public" about the existence of this technology so they could be wary of it, "just like eventually most people were made aware that you can Photoshop an image". The technology has drawn comparison with deep fakes and its potential usage for sinister purposes has been bruited.

Derivative works