Will the 9.9 yuan AI Barbie photo take away photographers' jobs?

As the box office of the movie "Barbie" soared, "Barbie AI Photo" became the hottest "peripheral" in recent days. The "AI Photo" that became popular in a short period of time was soon questioned due to a series of issues such as user privacy and refund issues. It is hard not to think of the previous AI face-changing software ZAO, which quickly swept the Internet but has now been forgotten by the public...

As the box office of the movie "Barbie" soars, "Barbie AI Photo" has become the hottest "peripheral" in recent days.

Almost overnight, many people posted their own "Barbie photos" on major social media platforms. No matter what skin color and hair color you have in your daily life photos, and no matter what you are wearing, you only need to upload it to a small program called "45AI" and spend 9.9 yuan to receive your own blonde Barbie photo - the hairstyle is mostly big blonde waves or long straight hair, all big eyes and high nose bridges, and everything from headwear to clothing is classic Barbie pink.

Although with the influx of more and more users, the waiting time has even extended from a few hours to two or three days, there are still many netizens who are looking forward to seeing themselves in the "pen" of the AI ​​photographer.

In fact, before "45AI" became popular, another AI photo app called "Miaoya Camera" had already attracted attention with its model of "9.9 yuan + 21 photos, you can get a digital avatar and a set of AI photos."

However, the "AI photo" that became popular in a short period of time was soon questioned due to a series of issues such as user privacy and refund issues. It is hard not to think of the previous AI face-changing software ZAO, which quickly swept the Internet but has now been forgotten by the public...

1. Pour into AI mini-programs and queue up to be “Barbie”

After watching the movie "Barbie" with her bestie, college student Jingyi quickly saw various Barbie outfits and photos of blonde Barbie on social media. The former is the dress code for watching a movie, and people will choose pink clothes or accessories, while the latter is a photo generated by the AI ​​applet according to the template.

“My first reaction was definitely one of brightening up. After all, this movie is very popular recently, and the image of Barbie in it is deeply rooted in people’s hearts. When I saw the Barbie photos posted by others, of course I wanted to follow suit and try.” Jingyi and her bestie quickly found this small program called “45AI” from the posts shared by netizens, and followed the steps, selected the “Barbie” template, uploaded 9 clear front and side face photos, paid 9.9 yuan, and began waiting for the photos to be released.

In order to make the portrait look good and more like herself, Jingyi also did a lot of research and carefully selected photos. "Because everyone's Barbie photos are so beautiful, I am also looking forward to my own Barbie look."

In Jingyi's opinion, there are two main reasons why AI photo shoots can quickly make her place an order. "One is because of the popularity on social media, and the other is that it is really convenient and cheap. You don't have to go to a photography studio to do makeup and change clothes to get a photo shoot, so why not?"

As Jingyi said, "Barbie AI photo" quickly became popular on social media. Zinc Scale noticed that on Weibo, many beauty or fashion bloggers have posted their own Barbie AI photos, and the topic #aiBarbie# has nearly 400,000 views.

On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 20,000 notes related to "Barbie Photo", and most of them have titles such as "I also have a Barbie photo", "Girls want not only a photo, but also themselves", "Unlock AI Barbie photo for 9.9 yuan, so beautiful", etc.

Among these notes, although many netizens shared related free AI photo software or photo editing tutorials, most of the notes mentioned the "45AI" priced at 9.9 yuan, and many netizens "shared invitation codes" or "asked for invitation codes."

According to Zinc Scale, the invitation code mechanism of "45AI" is "users can share their invitation code with 3 friends after purchasing a photo album, and the friends who receive the invitation code can get a set of photos for free." Therefore, "sharing invitation codes" has also become a part of promoting the popularity of AI photos.

However, starting from July 22, "45AI" has repeatedly "apologized" on its official account and stated that it "has temporarily stopped accepting new orders." On July 25, "45AI" issued another statement saying that due to the surge in traffic, the mini program had a malfunction and that the server is still under maintenance and repair. At present, the "45AI" mini program backend has temporarily closed the new order placement function, and all order placement channels (including invitation codes) no longer accept new orders. Users who have already placed orders will receive pictures in the order they placed.

2. Controversy has arisen, and it is difficult to snatch photographers’ business for the time being

As early as July 20, the official WeChat account of "45AI" published its first article, introducing that "we are a brand new photo tool driven by AI, which can produce images super fast and has a lot of ideas on demand." It said that "we can achieve 95 points of refined photos at 5% of the cost" and directly challenged photographers, saying that "photography requires scenes and the full cooperation of photographers. Adults want everything without making choices, but it is really impossible for photographers to meet all requirements in one set of photos."

At the same time, another AI photo app “Miaoya Camera”, which was launched on July 17 and quickly became popular on social platforms, also directly compared the quality of its photos with those of chain photography agencies such as Hippocampus and Tianzhenlan. The price of a set of photos of the latter is at least ten times that of the former.

But can the popular “AI photographer” really take away the business of real photographers?

In fact, within just a few days of the popularity of "Barbie AI Photo", controversy has already followed. The initial "complaints" focused on the user experience. Many users said that the waiting time was too long or the invitation code could not be used. Some netizens were not satisfied with the photos generated by it, including Jingyi.

"Because we used it early, there was no queue. It took about three hours from uploading to receiving the photos, but it was really not worth it after receiving them." What Jingyi was most dissatisfied with was, "This set of photos has nothing to do with me. From the same old blonde hair to the three-dimensional facial features, it really doesn't look like me. I'm embarrassed to share it on WeChat Moments."

There are also many similar "failed posts" on Xiaohongshu, such as "It's beautiful, but it has nothing to do with me", "I waited for a day and a half, looking forward to the Barbie photo, but the result can't be said to have nothing to do with it. It's so outrageous that it feels like a photo sent to me by a stranger", "It took 15 hours, and the result is weird"...

"Failed" photos on Xiaohongshu

"The work of a photographer is not as simple as everyone imagines." Qu Yi, who has been a personal photographer for five years, told Zinc Scale, "The current situation of AI photo shooting is not enough to threaten us. Many people think that the key to photo shooting is just shooting and retouching. In fact, communication is a very important part. First, we must clarify the consumption needs of the guests through communication before shooting, and second, communicate and guide the guests to present the best and most natural state during the shooting process."

In Qu Yi's opinion, "the current AI photo app is more like a photo retoucher than a photographer, but it is easy for everyone to look the same when retouching photos using the same template."

However, compared with issues such as waiting time and the quality of the photos, personal rights such as user privacy have attracted a lot of attention. The Beijing Evening News previously reported that a lawyer pointed out that as software producers and publishers, they should fully remind software users that uploaded photos may lead to information leakage due to network attacks or computer viruses and Trojan programs.

Previously, some users discovered that MiaoYa Camera wrote in the "4.1.4 Authorization License" of the user service agreement: "You hereby grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, sublicensable, free and non-exclusive license throughout the world (including virtual spaces such as the metaverse) to use your content in any form, media or technology (whether now known or later developed). Our 'use' here means use, hosting, storage, modification, communication, publication or any use we deem appropriate. Before you submit your uploaded content to our platform through this service, you will ensure that you have the necessary rights to grant us permission." This paragraph of the agreement was accused of being quite "overbearing."

In response to this, the MiaoYa Camera operation team quickly responded on Weibo, stating that the original agreement content was incorrect and that some terms were updated on July 20. The user agreement has now been corrected to "The photos you upload will only be used for this service. We only provide image processing services and will not extract identification information or use it for identification purposes. After the service is completed, the system will automatically delete the above information and will not retain it."

On July 24, the official "45 AI Photo" also issued an announcement stating that it had paid attention to news about AI-related crimes and had launched a new user profile deletion function. After deletion, the platform will not retain any personal information, nor will it be used for any other purpose without the individual's authorization.

3. AI applications that became popular overnight come and go

If we look back at the AI ​​applications that have become popular in the past two years, it is not difficult to find that there seems to be no shortage of popular projects in this field, but they often disappear quickly after becoming popular overnight.

Take the AI ​​face-changing application "ZAO" that caused a craze in 2019 as an example. "ZAO" previously swept the circle of friends with the slogan "Only one photo is needed to star in the best dramas in the world". Users only need to provide photos to change the faces of the protagonists of many classic film and television dramas, which attracted many people to download and use it.

However, soon after, the user agreement of "ZAO" for users' facial photos "completely free, irrevocable, permanent, sublicensable and re-licensable rights" triggered concerns and doubts about privacy security. A day later, "ZAO" was blocked by WeChat from sharing links, with the reason being "the webpage has security risks and has been complained by many people." From the screen to the doubts, it took no more than 24 hours. From the popularity of the circle of friends to being banned by WeChat, "ZAO" only spent a short three days.

Afterwards, the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also announced that in response to the "ZAO" App's irregular user privacy agreement, data leakage risks and other network data security issues, the Cyber ​​Security Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology questioned and interviewed the relevant person in charge of Beijing Momo Technology Co., Ltd. behind it.

Looking back at "ZAO" after four years, its popularity was short-lived and now no one cares about it anymore.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Now, even though the two popular “AI photo” mini-programs have released new announcements, it is difficult for “Jingyi and others” to become returning customers.

On social media platforms, many netizens were persuaded to quit, "Stop making AI Barbie pictures. It's a big deal to wake up one person at a time... I had so much fun, but now I think about it and it's terrifying."

"To be honest, I'm still a little scared. After all, I have to upload more than ten private photos at a time, and the final product is average. The first time I used it was more of a trend, and I probably won't use it again in the future." Jingyi said.

Perhaps, before the chronic problems of AI applications are solved, "Miaoya Cameras" will soon follow the old path of "ZAO".

Author: Li Xuanqi; Editor: Wen Jie

Source public account: Zinc Scale (ID: znkedu), focusing on original in-depth reports on technology and the new Internet economy.