The viral AI portrait app sweeping across China

These viral photos are sweeping across Chinese social media. Miaoya, which means “fabulous duck” in Chinese, uses artificial intelligence to generate stylish portraits of users that resemble what you’d get from a professional photographer. While AI photo generators aren’t new, Chinese users have flocked to Miaoya because they say the app’s pictures are the most accurate and compelling.

Users must upload at least one headshot and 20 other photos of themselves to generate portraits. The app charges a minimum of 9.9 yuan ($1.40), with an extra charge for more images. Miaoya can then generate portraits in a variety of styles. Options include business attire, traditional Chinese clothing, glamorous evening dresses, and U.S. high-school uniforms. 

After picking a style, users can choose from smaller variations, such as hairstyles. Lifestyle influencer Midori Ge used the app to generate headshots for her LinkedIn page. Ge was stunned by the results: The app generated portraits that looked almost exactly like her. Although the lips and nose looked slightly different from her own, she was shocked by the accuracy of the eyes. “They are really like my own eyes,” she told Rest of World.

Miaoya Camera was reportedly founded by a team at tech company Alibaba. The app has not disclosed details about its technology, but experts told Chinese media that it was likely powered by the open-source program Stable Diffusion. Some users have expressed concerns about how the app uses their personal data, given that Miaoya’s terms of use initially stated it could use the photos “in any form.” Miaoya later revised the terms, pledging to delete users’ photos after the AI generation is completed.