Artificial Intelligence learns from data; it’s a generative intelligence that’s built from a huge neutral net. For AI art programs, this neural net consists of hundreds of thousands of images and prompts, but these neural nets keep recreating one creepy woman.
AI art keeps making Loab
Described as a cryptid of virtual space, AI generated art keeps falling back on the likeness of a creepy woman. Known as Loab, the haunting virtual spirit keeps appearing in seemingly disconnected prompts across multiple AI art services.
Discovered by AI art expert Supercomposite, Loab was discovered by trying to use negative weight prompts during image generation. When doing this, the image of Loab appeared frequently, somehow tied to negative weight prompts.
Furthermore, the creepy woman’s likeness is usually tied to terrifying imagery, oftentimes on the gory side. One image shows the AI creation in a hallway wearing an outfit out the 80s; next to her is herself in a zombified, gory state. It’s rather haunting.
Supercomposite revealed that the images they’ve revealed are not even the most disturbing ones. They explained:
“Loab also produced art with such copious gore that probably very few people want to see them, but here are two. I don't feel comfortable posting the most disturbing ones, borderline snuff images of dismembered, screaming children.”
Read More: Ariel turned White in horrifically racist AI “experiment”
Why does Loab keep popping up?
According to Supercomposite, the idea of Loab that’s present in numerous AI art services is tied to negative weights. While we cannot examine the dataset to find her origins, the creepy woman is somehow defined by negativity.
“Her gestalt is made from a collection of traits that are equally far away from something,” Supercomposite explains. “But her combined traits are still a cohesive concept for the AI, and almost all descendent images contain a recognizable Loab.”
As with most AI software, these AI art programs are typically formed from common datasets. This is how AI bias is formed, a sometimes harmless, oftentimes dangerous fact regarding the technology.
Loab is an example of AI bias. In these generative art programs, negative prompts are biased to create an image that looks like the woman we call Loab. While not as bad as something like racist AI audio tools, it shows that bias exists in many forms.
While Loab’s existence is somewhat harmless to the vast majority of people, it is still creepy. In fact, it’s almost like something out of a creepypasta. Did 2010 just call?