---
title: "Look at These Incredibly Realistic Faces Generated By A Neural Network"
description: "The NVIDIA neural network can create incredibly realistic faces. The future of AI generated faces is online with Futurism."
date: "2018-12-13"
modified: "2019-01-09"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/incredibly-realistic-faces-generated-neural-network"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "generative adversarial network"
  - "NVIDIA"
---

# Look at These Incredibly Realistic Faces Generated By A Neural Network

![Researchers at NVIDIA created a neural network that can come up with incredibly realistic faces on the spot.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/incredibly-realistic-faces-generated-neural-network.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NVIDIA\</em\>*

## Faking It

We officially can no longer trust anything we see on the internet. From [whole-body deep fakes](<https://futurism.com/full-body-deepfakes>) to AI-based [translation dubbing](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/deepfakes-translation-tech-synthesia>), technology is starting to distort reality — all with the help of machine learning.

Case in point: researchers at NVIDIA have harnessed the power of a generative adversarial network (GAN) — a class of neural network — to generate some [extremely realistic faces](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.04948.pdf>). The results are more impressive than anything we've seen before. Take a look below, bearing in mind that none of these faces are real.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ai1.jpg>)
*Image Credit: NVIDIA*

## Fake Faces

A GAN can iteratively generate images based on genuine photos it learns from. Then it evaluates the new images against the original. In this instance, the researchers taught a GAN a number of "styles" — faces modeled after subjects who were old, young, wearing glasses, or had different hair styles.

The results are spectacular. Even small seemingly random details like freckles, skin pores or stubble are convincingly distributed in the images the project generated.

The network even took a crack at generating fake pictures of cats. They didn't turn out quite as well.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cats-ai.jpg>)
*Image Credit: NVIDIA*

## AI Rising

It's not the first time a GAN has been used to generate pictures of people. Last year, the same group of NVIDIA researchers created a [neural-network-based image generator](<https://futurism.com/these-people-never-existed-they-were-made-by-an-ai>). But results were far less impressive: faces appear distorted and unnatural. The results are also of a much lower resolution.

Neural networks are becoming incredibly good at faking human faces. Will we be able to tell them apart in the future? At this rate, they could become indistinguishable from reality.

https://youtu.be/kSLJriaOumA

**READ MORE:** [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.04948.pdf>) \[arXiv\]

***More on neural network-generated faces: [These People Never Existed. They Were Made by an AI.](<https://futurism.com/these-people-never-existed-they-were-made-by-an-ai>)***

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)