I love plastic.
A review of tryiton.ai: Which one of our selves do we love the best? Maybe don’t have to decide.
Disclaimer: Please note that this article does not give any advice about the digital or privacy safety of using tryiton.ai. I am not advising as to whether your data and images will be protected, whether they will be used for nefarious purposes, nor whether there will be other types of consequences such as legal ramifications. I am only reviewing the whimsy of the tool and trying to understand ourselves in a world of rapidly evolving technology. Use at your own risk.
Using tryiton.ai has been the most entertaining thing I’ve done in the past week. It is a website that advertises the creation of “stunning professional headshots & portraits” by leveraging artificial intelligence. To try it yourself, simply upload 10–20 selfies to the platform and for a nominal fee of $17, and the tool will generate 100 headshot photos of ‘you’ in about 24 hours. You may customize the outputs; there are pre-populated categories of style. All of the photos are yours to download, keep, and otherwise utilize. If there are specific photos you’d like to focus on and do more editing, tryiton.ai will perform those services too for an additional fee.
I chose to go with the full variety of headshots styles and the result was myriad versions of ‘myself’, some of which were beyond imagination, in part because none of these photos are actual photos are me. I’ve never worn any of the clothes in the photos — specifically the red wide brimmed hat — nor worn the portrait hairstyles, nor been in the settings featured in the photos.
The result was a mixed bag as far as likeness. Some of the photos absolutely look like actual me, while some look like a close relative.
I wondered about the ultimate use case for these photos. Some are certainly useable for various socials like linkedin or instagram. It depends what one wants to communicate about oneself. But to me, experimentation and imagination was the unintended consequence. The images brought to mind not who I currently am, but whom I may choose to become. A visual representation of a future state can be quite powerful. Think of it as an architectural rendering for your dream home.
For those of us participating in the daily collective performance we call Corporate America (“CA”), we might reflect for a moment on how we are paid to play a role every day at our jobs or as a consumer participant in CA. Though an individual may be a very dynamic and nuanced person, any one person’s role in any organization — even a CEO’s role where autonomy is maximized — is limited in functionality and scope. In the corporation, we have been reduced to functions and personal brands. As consumers, we have been reduced to behaviors captured in algorithmic form. These are two sides of the self-fulfulling prophecy coin.
I’m not rebelling against this; I’m saying let’s lean into it. Among all the advice to bring your authentic self to work, I challenge whether it is 100% possible or desirable to do so. There is no job or environment that can exactly match the enigma of any one individual. The misalignment is inherent in the very proposition. Even founders lose control of their own companies, where culture devolves into something they hadn’t imagined; where vision is outstripped by collective action. Even freelancers are hired to deliver on the desires and expectations of their customers. Perhaps the exception is the artist, only creating for herself and no one else.
So, tryiton.ai resonated profoundly with me as far as provoking the imagination and helping oneself visualizing what one can be and how one can reinvent oneself within that confined context of Corporate America. A friend of mind observed that when she used the site, a couple of the photos added some age to her face. I was wary of this. Why would people want to see themselves as an older version? What kind of marketing misstep was this, tryiton.ai?
The same was true of some of my photos, but I was intrigued. Could this be me as a future CEO in a couple of years? But maybe not in finance, but in a creative industry. Until I saw this photo, it was hard to imagine. Okay, I’ll maybe never have blue eyes. But could I be the badass lady in the picture with a ton of character, confidence, and poise? Maybe. Why not?
While many of us will be contemplating the nefarious uses of such AI technology, including wrongful impersonations of others, deep-faking so as to extort information or payments, some of us will be using it as a visualization tool to get over our imposter syndrome and help us visualize a more fulfilling future. Yes, I am an imposter; we all are to the extent we play that one role all day every day. But what kind of imposter do you want to be next?
