DoppelgAIngers - Supplemental File

DoppelgAIngers displays a false "mirror" image that looks eerily like you: dressed similarly, posed similarly, but who does not exist.

"Deep fakes" are images or videos that have been manipulated with AI to misrepresent the truth. These images spread virally online, giving credence to conspiracy theories and stoking political, social, and cultural tensions. These images force us to question the nature of visual truth. How can we investigate what we know to be true? How can we reconcile the reality of the physical world with the subjective nature of images? How can we recognize manipulated images when we see them?

DoppelgAIngers is a web-based interactive piece and series of images. This work raises questions about truth in imagery and highlights the uncanny nature of AI-generated images. The piece functions like a "camera" or "mirror" but instead of reflecting a true image, it displays an image that has been passed through AI as if in a game of telephone. The image or video input is described by AI and that image description is fed back into AI as an image prompt. For instance, a person stands in front of a web camera to be met with an unsettling AI doppleganger — a person who looks eerily like them, wearing a similar outfit, posed in a similar way, but who does not exist.

By connecting AI images to personal identity and understanding of self, the work intends to raise conversation around ethics and media literacy. It can be used as a tool for conversation, community engagement, and education around AI images.