How AI Headshot Generators work and Why BlinkHeadshot.ai Stands Out
Learn how the AI Headshot Generator works. What is a diffusion model, what is the most advanced AI Headshot Generator, and how to create the AI headshot for free with BlinkHeadshot.ai.
Jul 17, 2024
How AI image generation works
There are various techniques for AI to generate images, including GAN, Autoregressive, and others. In 2024, diffusion is considered to be the best approach.
How the diffusion model works
Given an original image, we can degrade its quality by adding noise, as illustrated above. Even with the addition of noise, humans can often accurately identify the underlying content of an image. If you're really good at editing images, you can even restore the original image.
The core concept of the Diffusion model revolves around this process of adding and removing noise. Similar to human perception of noise, we train AI models to identify and quantify noise within an image. This knowledge allows the model to progressively reconstruct the original image, leveraging probabilistic frameworks such as Markov Chains.
In the above example, you may think that the noise is moderate, so it is image restoration rather than image generation. In fact, in the case of Diffusion Model learning, it is possible to learn even noise that is difficult to infer the original image at all, as shown below.
In this case, the natural thought that comes to mind is “if we start with such a noisy image that it's hard to infer the image, won't the AI be trained to draw random images?”.
How to Create an Image Exactly as You Envision It
To Steer the image generation process, researchers have explored conditional diffusion models. A leading example is the Text-to-Image(T2I) apporach.
The T2I (Text-to-Image) module converts text into numerical data that AI can process, since AI systems operate on numerical representations rather than natural language. For example, you could substitute the number 0 for a cat and 1 for a dog, and train the AI to draw a cat when you give it a 0, and a dog when you give it a 1.
Despite their potential, these methods have certain limitation to creating AI headshots. The prompt “person” is not enough to reflect the diversity of individual appearances. It's also impractical to create prompts like “person1”, “person2”, ... to distinguish between all human beings in the world.
As of 2024, there are two main approaches.
- The Fine-tuning Method
- Identity-preserving Text-to-Image Generation
Two methodologies for creating AI headshots
1. The Fine-tuning Method
Fine-tuning is a technique that allows you to train a foundation AI model to do a desired behavior with just a little bit of training. If your AI is good at drawing huskies, poodles, and Maltese dogs, but not bulldogs, you might train it to draw bulldog images in small increments.
In the same way, if the AI is good at drawing people's faces but not exactly yours, you can fine-tune it to draw your face when you refer to your face as “person1”. Then, when creating an AI Headshot, you condition the image generating AI with prompts like “prefessional headshot of person1, wearing suit”.
Most AI picture generator services generate personalized images in this way. How do I know? Simply check how many conditioned images the AI picture service asks for when creating an image and see how long it takes to create one. Usually, it takes at least 10 minutes with the AI chip up and running to fine-tune the AI on multiple images because it's hard to train on just one image.
The Fine-tuning Method is very expensive in that it requires AI training each time to make a single inference. There are also privacy issues from the user's perspective, as they have to hand over multiple images of themselves to the service provider.
To summarize the fine-tuning methodology:
- Requires 5-10 photos of the individual
- Trains the AI on these specific images
- Time-consuming and potentially privacy-invasive
2. Identity-preserving Text-to-Image Generation
To overcome the high cost of fine-tuning methodologies, you need to be able to create personalized images without having to train AI. How can we create an AI headshot without having to train the AI?
Obviously, text alone is not enough to represent a person's identity. One of the solution is to provide another conditional information other than the text information. In the case of AI Headshot, you can think of it like including a face image. You take a single image of a face, replace it with numerical information that the AI can understand, and then train it. Then, a well-trained AI will be able to create an AI Headshot image based on any face image it receives.
To summarize the ID-T2I methodology:
- Uses a single photo as input
- Generates personalized headshots without extensive training
- Faster and more privacy-friendly
So what methodology does BlinkHeadshot.ai use?
Our BlinkHeadshot.ai service employs this second approach (ID-T2I). It allows us to create AI headshots the fastest while minimizing user privacy.
Services that use the first methodology don't offer previews because they can't create an image until the AI is trained, and AI training is expensive. Only BlinkHeadshot.ai allows you to see a preview and get a good idea of the image results before making a purchase.
To summarize BlinkHeadshot.ai's strengths:
- 🔒 Privacy Protection: We only require one photo, minimizing data sharing.
- ⚡ Speed: Generate AI headshots in seconds, not minutes or hours.
- 👁️ Preview Feature: Unlike other services, we offer instant previews before purchase.
- 💰 Cost-Effective: No need for expensive AI fine-tuning for each user.
Conclusion
We started the AI Headshot service with the belief that it would save people money and time. Other AI headshot generators currently available are either inefficient due to their tuning-based methodology or overly personal since they require multiple photos of your actual face.
We developed BlinkHeadshot.ai as a user-friendly service that allows you to preview results instantly and only purchase when you are satisfied. We're still a small team, and we'd appreciate it if you could try out the Free AI Headshot feature, even if you don't end up making a purchase. If you like what you see in the preview, you can purchase at that time.
Try BlinkHeadshot.ai today for the most advanced AI technology available.
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