So I’m sure by now a lot of you are familiar with the concept of A.I.-generated pictures. You log onto the site, you type in keywords and prompts and the Artificial Intelligence Program or A.I. begins automatically generating a picture based on the info you gave it. The resulting image can vary based on what images the A.I. chooses using your word prompts. The results can be visually appealing, grotesque, and uncanny, to more often or not unintentionally hilarious. Here’s how it works: The encoder receives an image, and encodes it into a condensed representation. The decoder takes this representation to create a new image changing the image Style. Its goal is to generate realistic images.
There are hundreds of youtube videos and twitch streams of people using these web sights to their audience’s amusement, photo results are being shared on social media, and there are even a few subreddits dedicated to them. A few are even being minted and sold as NFTs.
A few days ago I found out about one web-sight in particular while scrolling through social media during my lunch break at work. After reading about it online I curiously clicked on the link which loaded the page to my main browser. The instructions were clear, Input a name, a place or an action to the search bar then click the button to right labeled “run”. The image would take a minute or two to render then the final results would appear in 9 different automated images below the search bar.
I must have spent a good 20 minutes on it typing in humorous combinations, resulting in images of Oompa Loompas doing parkour, cats flying in a spaceship, the pope slam-dunking a basketball, and Vladimir Putin at a furries convention. The pictures were always somewhat distorted and the faces were never clear but there were enough details in the posture, the clothing, and colors for you to distinguish who the person was in the image.
Just for laughs, I typed my boss’s name followed by putting on a clown costume. I figured it probably wouldn’t work because my boss wasnt a well-known public figure but to my surprise, I was greeted with 9 images of my employer in various articles of colorful clothing along with a rainbow wig and red nose. I chuckled to myself after screen sharing the image to a few of my co-worker’s AirDrops which was followed by a few chuckles in the cubicles surrounding my own.
I then typed out my name followed by a few word combinations and was astonished to find 9 images of myself wearing my typical trademark black suit and tie performing various activities in different locations. The hair stuck up on the back of my neck. It was humorous to say the least when it was somebody else picture, but completely different when it was your image. After getting over the weird sensation I added a few more prompts following my name. I had images of myself on music albums, in famous paintings, and my favorite movie scenes.
Eventually, I began running out of ideas and just started clicking some of the recommended pre-suggested words auto-generating in the search bar to pass the time. Eventually, my phone alarm pinged reminding me I needed to get back to work, I randomly selected one more word that auto-populated following my name and hit the go button one last time. For some odd reason, that word just so happened to be the word “death”. I watched in morbid fascination as 9 images began to generate.
I felt my heart begin to race as I looked at the 9 A.I. Generated Images. The first three were of a distorted white van, and two pictures of a dimly lit room I was unfamiliar with. I couldn’t tell if they were from a garage or the inside of a warehouse or even an abandoned building. The next few images were what changed the mood from slightly uncomfortable to completely disturbed. There sat a man in a black suit and tie with a black sack over his head tied to a chair, the next ones were what looked like two men and a woman holding knives in their hands. Their faces were distorted and blurred, yet slightly familiar. The final images were blood stains on a tiled floor, a hole being dug in the woods from what looked like a trail cam, and an image of a blood-soaked body bag in the middle of the woods.
I can’t describe how exactly I felt. Have you ever had the feeling of Deja Vous when you walk into a place you know for a fact you have never been to before? It was like that, the people, the room, even the area in the woods. They all looked so familiar yet I didn’t know if I just imagined it or have seen them in a dream.
I closed the browser and after a few silent moments to calm my nerves I got back to work. The next few days went by with nothing out of the ordinary happening. I’d be reminded of those images from the web-sight from time to time, seeing other people’s A.I. search results being shared on social media or in group messages, but other than that I mostly forgot about the whole experience.
Tonight all of that changed. On my way to work, I was followed very closely by a white van with black tinted windows. I tried to pass it off as it possibly being owned by somone who worked in the same building I worked in but I just couldn’t get that image out of my head. Now and then I would look out of my window into the parking lot as more and more people left the building, entered their vehicles, and left. The white van never moved. I’m usually one of the last people to leave the building aside from the cleaners so when it came time for me to start packing up for the day I stood up and looked into the parking lot. The only two vehicles left were my own and the white van.
Upon closer investigation, I noticed the silhouettes of what looked like three figures sitting inside the vehicles. The glass was so tinted I couldn’t make out their faces. I sat there for a few moments trying to figure out the best way to exit the building without walking past the van to get to my vehicle. There were none. I thought about calling a friend, a co-worker, or even the police but then decided I was being paranoid.
I packed my laptop into my bag and stepped into the elevator. I pushed the button for the main lobby which was marked with a star when my eyes drifted to the button below. It was marked with a B for the basement. All of a sudden I felt a rush of adrenaline as I remembered the picture of the darkly lit room and why it was so familiar. It was the basement of the office building I worked in. I’ve only seen it once when I hit the bottom button by mistake but now the image was as clear as day. In a panic, I looked up as the elevator door opened to the main lobby. Just as the doors opened I noticed three figures begin to exit the white van 2 men and 1 woman. Each wearing a pair of black coveralls carrying what looked like a white sheet and a tool kit. It was then that I remembered why the pictures of the three people with knives looked so familiar. They were the maintenance staff that I usually passed by on my way out from time to time when I worked late.
I quickly began to mash the close button on the elevator as the doors began to slowly close in. Just as they were about to shut I made eye contact with one of the men as they entered the building. He nodded his head to me with a cruel grin on his face, his eyes as dark and sinister as the eyes of a predator. I hit the button to the top floor and tightly clutched my bag to my shoulders a cold sweat beginning to form on my lower back, chest, and palms.
Each moment I expected the doors to burst open as the maintenance staff members rushed toward me with a knife in hand but that moment never came. I reached the top floor and rushed to the nearest cubicle and hid under the desk. I reached desperately for my phone but my pockets were empty. I desperately dumped out the contents of my bags to look for it and it wasn’t anywhere in sight. I cursed under my breath as I remembered my phone on my desk still attached to my charger.
Stood up to make my way toward the elevator but stopped dead in my tracks when I realized it was probably too late. My desk was two stories below the floor I was on and they were probably already on the elevator and stairs looking for me. I ran to the nearest desk phone and picked it up desperately typing in 911 only to be greeted by silence on the other end. “Of course,” I thought to myself. The maintenance staff had access to all of the building’s controls and have most likely cut the power to the phone lines.
Now as I type this I can hear their footsteps on the floor below me. The heavy thud of their work boots and voices grow closer and closer every moment. I’m uploading this story now so that if anything happens to me tonight, at least someone knows the truth.
I’ve also attached the A.I. Image here The scene of the crime, the victim, and the murderers. If there’s any hope I have left is that someone will read this story and recognize the culprits or my final resting place. I also hope that others will learn not to try to find out about their death using this web-sight. I don’t know if not knowing would have changed anything for me, I only hope others might not make the same mistake as me. Some secrets are best left unknown. Ignorance is bliss.