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These dozens of AI-generated Pokémon look more official than some actual official ones【Pics】

Scott Wilson Dec 18, 2021
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“I’d believe it if someone told me they were real Pokémon.”

In recent years artificial intelligence has become better and better, able to produce human models and SoraNews24 articles that are nearly indistinguishable from “real” ones.

But to be fair, human faces are all fairly similar, and SoraNews24 articles are only text and images. There’s no way AI could possibly create something that’s multicolored, has wild amounts of variations, and requires the finesses of a human hand.

Something like, oh I don’t know, its own legit-looking Pokémon, right?

…right?

I forced a bot to look at every Pokémon and told it to generate its own. Here are the results.

(this isn't a joke, that's actually how I made these) pic.twitter.com/MfJUWJHZoB

— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021

Max Woolf (@minimaxir) is a data scientist who’s created AI generation tools, and now he’s put them to use to see what sort of Pokémon an algorithm could come up with.

Personally, I woud’ve expected AI-generated Pokémon to have a lot more random lines sticking out of them, mismatched colors, and having their heads mixed up with their tails, but these are all pretty legit-looking.

▼ Here’s just one batch of the AI-generated Pokémon.
The ones in the top row almost look like water, fire, and grass starters!

▼ Due to their popularity, Max posted another batch of AI Pokémon…
(Click the images to see more)

Bonus batch! pic.twitter.com/qdr7SoesUj

— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021

▼ …and then did it again! I suppose when they’re all being generated by a computer, tons of them can be pumped out no problem.

Wow, you all really, really like these AI-Generated Pokémon!

As a thanks for all your support, how about ANOTHER BONUS BATCH?! 😁 pic.twitter.com/kM3Kc8bBe6

— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 15, 2021

▼ He even tried with different inputs,
here using only Pokémon from the first generation.

By popular demand: here's more AI-generated Pokémon, but this time the model is trained on *only* Gen 1 Pokémon (the 1995-era Sugimori art of the original 151).

Those who thought this would make the generated Pokémon less bizarre were very wrong. pic.twitter.com/FS5GIweKUc

— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) December 17, 2021

The reaction to the AI-generated Pokémon was incredible, with most people expressing how blown away they were by the designs. Many tried to figure out what types each of the new Pokémon would be, while others were already creating fanart for some of their favorites:

i drew two lads from the first batch pic.twitter.com/71mm3xzuun

— elenore🔮 pre-debut envtuber (@vixenele) December 15, 2021

I love this little guy so much I had to draw my version of him pic.twitter.com/5FOedKt3s3

— ⚡_EE⚡ 🚨COMMS CLOSED🚨 (@ElectricEidolon) December 15, 2021

ummm i love them pic.twitter.com/pGHsP9hDFa

— pippington (@pippipchirio) December 15, 2021

Japanese netizens similarly expressed their awe and fear of the AI that created these:

“I’d believe it if someone told me they were real Pokémon.”
“Feel like some of them are monsters I’d see in a fever dream.”
“You really can’t tell they’re AI-generated unless you look closely.”
“They’re giving me goosebumps. Something’s just off about them.”
“There’s a few that look like they were created by someone mentally unstable lol.”
“Science has gone too far.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen AI-generated Pokémon, but it’s such an improvement over last time that it is a little bit scary. What will they look like next time? Will AI create actual Pokémon that can walk, talk, and shoot lightning?

Well, about time to start investing in some real-life Poké Balls.

Source: Twitter/@minimaxir via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Twitter/@minimaxir
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