Thread by @conspirator0

There's some weird stuff going on with the engagement on this tweet from @ilkersenock, including multiple retweets from accounts with GAN-generated faces. Let's take a look. #SundayShenaniGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote

The accounts with GAN-generated faces that retweeted the @ilkersenock tweet in question are part of a network of 18 accounts created on February 17th, 2023 with GAN-generated faces. All of their content thus far is retweets of @ilkersenock tweeted via the Twitter Web App.

Despite the fact that one can produce an endless number of unique GAN-generated faces, this network contains duplicates: @BerkYil82206927 and @GokerCelik5 use the same image, as do @DenizSe18153981/@KorayEr34506957, @GokerKaya7/@TugraAgaoglu3, and @TunaDem21703166/@UmutKorkmaz8.

Unmodified GAN-generated faces (at least, those in widespread use) have the distinctive trait that the major facial feature (particularly the eyes) are in the same pixel position on each image. This becomes obvious when one blends several such "faces" together.

Most of the accounts in this network have several hundred followers, but their followers are no more real than their artificially-generated "faces": almost all are empty accounts created in between November 2022 and March 2023.

The fake followers following the 18 GAN-faced accounts are from a massive fake follower network that's been turning up all over the place lately:

More on GAN-generated faces and their use on various parts of the Internet:

Some tips for detecting GAN-generated faces:

Pastebin of the IDs of the accounts in the network: pastebin.com/eqcxhsFU

Interesting