This [item] Does Not Exist. Ongoing Index of non-existing things... | by Merzmensch | Towards Data Science

The Digital Age reshaped everything. Even our conception of reality. In the XXth century, philosophers questioned the originality of an artwork (“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin). In the XXIst century, we question if something is real at all (and if there is something like a reality). With Machine and Deep Learning’s power, entirely new possibilities emerged: we can generate something that never existed before. And ontological discussions continue in new dimensions...
The technical progress is going on at a rapid pace. For example, Generative Adversarial Networks. Here you can see the quality of GAN progress on face generation, presented in a tweet by Ian Goodfellow (creator and developer of GANs):
And it was a 2018 tweet. The following year, StyleGAN came. And then, StyleGAN2. Based on the co-play of Generator and Discriminator this framework was able to generate photorealistic imagery. Not only the AI community was fascinated by new visual freshness. A website named “ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com” became viral and acted as a bridge between Data Science and a broad audience. It showcased AI’s capability to create lifelike portraits of not existing persons... or Deepfakes (a favorite media topic if it’s time to speak about visual AI).
DeepFake as a term means already delusion, fraud. But for me, ML/DL creations are full of unusual beauty. Forget “Uncanny Valley”.
It became a cultural movement, a metaphor for AI’s creative (and dangerous) potential, a meme. The “This XY Does Not Exist” meme.
In the following, I want to present the existing representations of non-existing things, crafted with Machine and Deep Learning’s power. The list will be ongoing updated with new findings.
Url: https://ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com/Creator: Philipp WangTechnology: (former: StyleGAN), StyleGAN2, Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 for FFHQ dataset at 1024×1024 (pkl)
Presented images are coming from the Latent Space (the “machine’s subconsciousness”, “representation of compressed data”). Every time you refresh the page, a new image appears. This was probably one of the first ways to demonstrate the power of StyleGAN2.
I advise you to run this StyleGAN2 Colab Notebook, finetuned by Mikael Christensen. It even has the possibility of StyleGAN2 projection (e.g. for detecting DeepFakes).
Meanwhile, there is an opposite page: ThisPersonExists, launched by Vincent Woo as a homage to thousands of real human faces being used for StyleGAN2 training. Beautiful and weird as well.
URL: https://ThisCatDoesNotExist.com/Creator: Philipp Wang (?)Technology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: LSUN Cat dataset at 256×256 (pkl)
This page presents StyleGAN2-generated images of cats. Unlike faces, its resolution is rather humble (256x256), and cats don’t always look realistic. But, as a side note, do cats ever look realistic? I mean, IRL?
Another interesting — and non-existing cat can be visited in this interactive Latent Space Explorer:
URL: https://notrealcats.com/Creator: NotReal.aiTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 for cats?
NotRealCats is an online gallery of daily digital art — and the cat explorer is an amazing feature. Moving your mouse around the image you trigger the smooth change of pre-generated images. I have never known, that changing a cat’s Gestalt is something such pleasant.
URL: https://ThisHorseDoesNotExist.com/Creator: Philipp Wang (?)Technology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 for LSUN Horse dataset at 256×256 (pkl)
The same story (see: cats). The low resolution doesn’t reconstruct alternate horses. Sometimes you see weird glitches as if the Discriminator gave up on low quality and went fishing; however, the Generator still tried as well as possible.
These pre-trained networks are enabled by NVidia with StyleGAN2. In the default collection were also “car” and “church” datasets available. Alas, ThisChurchDoesNotExist doesn’t exist — but, again, you can generate it using StyleGAN2 Notebook.
URL: https://www.thisautomobiledoesnotexist.com/Creator: James J. ParkTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 for LSUN Car dataset at 512×384 (pkl)
For car lovers — a source of endless fascination. Interestingly, the number plates are anonymized, unintentionally — since this StyleGAN2 model is not trained on language. A nice side effect for Data Privacy.
URL: https://thisartworkdoesnotexist.com/Creator: Michael FriesenTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 model trained on Abstract Art
This is an excellent example of the reinterpretation of art by ML. Is it still mimicking human creativity, or something more?
I also used this model for making some animated attract impressions, like this:
Or this:
Trained on Art Datasets, Neural Network can produce beautiful media, and it’s up to us how to interpret it.
URL: https://www.thiswaifudoesnotexist.net/Creator: Gwern BranwenTechnology: StyleGAN2 / GPT-3Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on Anime Faces
With this project, the legendary Gwern Branwen brought joy not only for every otaku among us. In combination with GPT-3 generated text, you will get a review of non-existing anime shows every time you refresh your browser (or just after a couple of seconds of auto-refresh).
The answer to the question in the project title “Do Electric Neural Nets Dream Of Anime Shows?” should be definitely: “はい!”
URL: https://thisanimedoesnotexist.ai/Creator: Aydao (with help of Gwern, arfafax, theshawwn, Nearcyan)Technology: StyleGAN2, Danbooru2019 (more here)Pretrained Network: Danbooru2019
An extended version of Waifu. Very detailed. Sometimes NSFW — here some Safe For Work images:
A broad variety of anime styles, even with imitation of Japanese characters (of course, since it’s StyleGAN2, it doesn’t speak Japanese, it mimes the language).
You will forget everything on this latent space browser of non-existing Anime. Just be aware of images, you might be flashed.
URL: https://thiseyedoesnotexist.com/Creator: Gonçalo AbreuTechnology: ProGAN Pretrained Network: ProGAN trained on Eye Make-Up Dataset
You won’t find here Eye of Sauron, so don’t worry — Gonçalo Abreu created a dataset of MakeUp faces and trained ProGAN on its eyes. Some of them are beautiful, some of them are creepy, some of them have definitely glitches. And you can vote for them as well. Why not?
URL: http://thisbeetledoesnotexist.com/Creator: Bernat CuniTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on Public Domain Beetle Illustrations
Imagine yourself being a coleopterist, discovering rare beetles, one after another. In the Latent Space. That’s what a project by Bernat Cuni “Confusing Coleopterists” is all about. You see beautiful illustrations from scientific books under Public Domain license (it does mean they have some longer lives than many of us already).
Look for your one exemplar!
URL: https://thisbutterflydoesnotexist.com/Creator: Rob from DigitalSpecialists.aiTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on Dataset from Natural History Museum London
Around 30.000 Butterflies, generated by StyleGAN2, flutter around on this website. Creator described pretty well the steps he did, so not only inspiring but also very instructive.
URL: http://thiscitydoesnotexist.com/Creator: Ron Hagensieker, Tomas LangerTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on WorldView-2 (European Cities Dataset), Sentinel 2 (globally extracted cities from GEE), and NASA SRTM 
Ironically, for people living in Europe, such satellite images should be so familiar that one almost could identify a small town — besides, there are no such on the European ground or at the Earth’s surface.
Ron Hagensieker and Tomas Langer created an exciting model that lets you sneak into Alternate Europe.
URL: https://thisvesseldoesnotexist.com/Creator: Derek Philip AuTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on Ceramic imagery database
Ceramicist Derek Philip Au is multi-talent — not only he crafts ceramics, he also created Glazy, a free platform for sharing and analyzing ceramics recipes. But with ML, he also explores new frontiers of creativity.
AI-generated new vessels can inspire new textures and patterns. Moreover, new combinations and metamorphoses are possible. For example, in combination with Beetle datasets:
or with dresses:
URL: https://thisponydoesnotexist.net/Creator: ArfaTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on ~104k SFW images from Derpibooru
Derpibooru is an image board for My Little Pony fans — and so are the contents. Thousands and thousands of fan images from the series — some of them SFW, some of them rather not. Luckily, Arfa trained the network on the safe images — and the page is a real Latent Space browser, where you can observe all kinds of My Little Ponies, generated by StyleGAN2.
URL: https://thisfursonadoesnotexist.com/Creator: ArfaTechnology: StyleGAN2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on ~55k SFW images from e621.net
Another project by Arfa, similar to Ponies — and in this case, I would be even very grateful for using only SFW images for training the Network. Really.
URL: https://thischemicaldoesnotexist.com/Creator: ???Technology: ??? Pretrained Network: ???
I know almost nothing about this project (please drop some info about it in the comments). The only thing is: this page is linked directly from ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com.
Here you can examine a molecule in 3D. Without any background or further information. Call it Chem-ZEN. Mesmerizing.
URL: https://thismuppetdoesnotexist.com/Creator: Doron AdlerTechnology: StyleGAN2Pretrained Network: Muppet Show Image Database
Jim Hanson would appreciate that his characters had run out of control and evolved to some weird, sometimes nightmarish, but all in all sympathetic Mega-Creatures like Doron did with StyleGAN2. Follow him on Twitter — he does many great experiments with the visual capabilities of Machine Learning.
URL: https://www.thisworddoesnotexist.com/Creator: Thomas DimsonTechnology: GPT-2 Pretrained Network: StyleGAN2 trained on ~55k SFW images from e621.net
This extraordinary project, powered by GPT-2, opens a door into the endless world of languages. Non-existing? Probably, till this moment — but after it emerges, the new word becomes manifested — and you can use it (if you want).
This page features even a possibility to write your fantasy word — and the system will dress it up with semantics. Infinite Jest.
URL: https://theselyricsdonotexist.com/Creator: Peter RanieriTechnology: NLP model (GPT-2?)Pretrained Network: Unknown
This lyric generator is a pretty powerful one. It creates lyrics to practically every topic you can imagine. Here is a song about toaster (you may know my affinity towards Toasters and Data Science):
Verse 1With just one toasterWith just one toasterWith just one toaster, yeah, yeahSay says I can make you rock with mePre-ChorusSpirits are calling from my toasterSpirits are calling from my toasterChorusWhen I get home in the evening I like to make some toaster and then I play some poolI lay down by the ocean with my head on the floorToaster your healthToaster your health
Or a rock song about “Artificial Intelligence”:
Verse 1Please welcome, welcome to this artificial timeThe moment, the moment, the momentWell intelligence, intelligenceUnited to defeat them allPre-ChorusWe have artificial means to relieve the feelingWe could take a bottle in our hand to purify itChorusFrom the artificial house and who felt safer in itThan anyone in a real townYou wanna be a favorite manRow your ships, artificial intelligence, a perfect world of dreams
Even if they not only have a rhyme or coherent verse, nevertheless you cannot stop to generate — and to sing!
URL: https://thissnackdoesnotexist.com/Creator: Ariel Levi, @kobyof et alTechnology: (GPT-2?)Pretrained Network: "Web Crawler?"
As project authors write, “While not exactly your ordinary GPT-2 modal, we do crawl the web to find unexpected combos and show them for you.” Interestingly, the page provides ML-based probability factors for every snack. “Pad Thai Bubble Gum” is 0.146, according to their Plausibility Index. This is the code of the project: looking for and scoring “the plausibility of different types of associations”.
URL: https://thisvesseldoesnotexist.com/#/Creator: Derek Philip AuTechnology: GPT-3Pretrained Network: Prompting GPT-3 with real quotes of existing artists
This one is a beautiful approach to reimagine artist manifests and statements by AI. The creator of “VESSEL” (see above), Derek Philip Au is experimenting with GPT-3 as well, and the non-existing quotes are not only convincing. They represent existing opinions and views — even if the particular artists have never said it (or even if there aren’t such particular artists at all).
For example, even if I couldn’t find any artist named “Giles Newton” — but art, criticizing art critics was almost the way of creating by Kurt Schwitters, German Dadaist, who mashed up all the criticism on his art into his new artworks.
Combining various visual and textual ML approaches can generate more unusual realms. Here are just some of them, which don’t exist, and yet they do.
URL: https://thisrentaldoesnotexist.com/Creator: Christopher Schmidt, @crschmidtTechnology: StyleGAN2, Shakespeare with TPU and KerasPretrained Network: Trained on AirBnB data
Nowadays, travels aren’t in — Pandemics are causing our StayAtHome state of mind. But our fernweh can be healed by some crazy experiments, like this one. Trained on OpenDataSoft’s Airbnb Listings and using “Predict Shakespeare With Cloud TPUs” the system generates Rental Apartment descriptions. Images are produced by StyleGAN2 (on Bedroom Dataset).
This is for sure not GPT-3 and the texts are on the fringe between insanity and reality, but this combination of visual and contextual data creates an eerie vibe of reality here.
URL: https://thisrentaldoesnotexist.com/Creator: TeamMemo (?)Technology: textual and visual generatorPretrained Network: algorithms (not ML?)
Prepare for a long scroll:
This is more than just an experiment. It’s a parody about the generic state of many StartUps, who try to disrupt but implode after several pitches. According to Forbes and Fortune, “Nine of ten startups fail”. There are manifold reasons for their ends, but one of the most crucial is: they often bear too perfect ideas without considering reality.
In ThisStartupDoesNotExist we observe the web presences of unexisting startups as Zeitgeist: fancy stock image from Unsplash, hipster-ish looking staff, detailed pricing data, but you mostly have no clue, what does this StartUp really do. In the case of the current page, it’s obvious (generated contents). But in the case of many existing StartUps, it’s why they even by themselves not really know what do they actually do.
URL: thisquestiondoesnotexist.com (forwarded to https://stackroboflow.com/)Creator: Brad DwyerTechnology: FastAI / AWD_LSTMPretrained Network: Trained on "Stack Exchange Data Dump"
Trained on Question&Answer conversations from StackExchange, this model generates realistically looking dialogues with experts.
Stylistically and topographically correctly simulated forum couldn’t probably solve the real problems but is refreshingly inspiring and generous for thinking out of the box.
URL: https://thisfootdoesnotexist.com/Creator: MSCHFTechnology: StyleGAN2Pretrained Network: Trained on "WikiFeet"
Guerilla company MSCHF, which is (in)famous for various memes, virals, puns, and subversive fun, generated this page using StyleGAN. As training Data was used “WikiFeet”, a massive database of feet images (don’t ask me, please).
This Foot Does Not Exist is a parody of fetishism of old urges and new technologies, social media clashes, and messaging app crazes. Subversive as every other project by MSCHF.
URL: https://thisresumedoesnotexist.com/Creator: EnhancvTechnology: TextgenRNN / StyleGANPretrained Network: Trained on "WikiFeet"
If there are persons who do exist, even if they don’t, why shouldn’t they have a personal CV?
Currently, the site seems not to work properly, as only one CV keeps to be generated repeatable. You can edit it within the browser and the texts are TextgenRNN generated contents, way better than lorem ipsum, but still not GPT-3. Anyway, the chic and simple design is pleasant.
I hope to generate new CVs for a new person because this is an fantastic way of storytelling.
URL: https://vole.wtf/this-mp-does-not-exist/Creator: @VOLEwtfTechnology: RunwayML, StyleGANPretrained Network: Trained on data from Parliament.uk
In the case of Brexit, you probably need a new fresh perspective. Even a new Parliament. Like this one.
In this case, “MP data was grabbed from Parliament.uk-page”: images were used for training and generating new faces, and “names were built using segments from the names of 2.097 real MPs” (source).
A bitter satire about generic politicians.
URL: https://imgflip.com/ai-memeCreator: Dylan Wenzlau / ImgFlipTechnology: Deep Convolutional Network in Keras & TensorflowPretrained Network: Trained on public meme captions
dylan wenzlau, founder of ImgFlip, trained Deep Conv Net on ~100M public meme captions by users of the Imgflip Meme Generator. Check out his article here on Towards Data Science:
towardsdatascience.com
The juxtaposition of memes as cultural phenomena and chaotic AI-generated captions is mind-blowing and hilarious at the same time. It’s a genius. Absurd. Metafictional.
Even if I tried to include in this list everything I found so far, there are also other sources and lists covering Stuff that doesn’t exist. Just to keep track.
thisxdoesnotexist.com
github.com
In case you’ve found something non-existing new, please write in the comments. The only rule is, the project should be called “This (item) Does Not Exist” (even if I violated my own game rules in this article).