AI-generated anime selfies propel beauty app to top in Japan

THE shares of Meitu jumped this past week, after its app’s ability to turn selfies into anime characters turbocharged it to the top of Japan’s download rankings this past week.

The Hong Kong-based AI-driven technology company was up more than 50 per cent over the past couple of weeks.

Chief executive Wu Xinhong told Bloomberg that the app was also among the top-three, most-downloaded on Apple’s App Store in countries such as the US, Brazil, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Numbers from Data.ai showed that global downloads surged 79 per cent in the week commencing Nov 28.

Meitu started work on artificial intelligence (AI) photo tools in 2017. That began to pay off with the addition of a filter to transform photos into pictures in anime style. This was rolled out in China on Nov 24 and hit global markets three days later, Wu said.

“We are seeing an explosion of AI-generated content and its huge potential,” he noted. “It’s an unprecedented opportunity for us, a technological revolution.” 

The use of AI to generate or alter images took off in popularity this year, with the introduction of text-to-image systems like Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E.

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The technology is not without its controversy, but its appeal and accessibility have helped it proliferate.

Meitu’s approach differed, by applying a style transfer onto an existing image. The company also rolled out the option to add subtle animations, like falling sakura, to its AI-generated anime avatars.

Japan proved to be an eager adopter of this new trend.

University of Tokyo professor Fujio Toriumi found that 40 per cent of hashtagged AI-generated images on Twitter since June came from the country. Data.ai figures showed that over the past two weeks, Meitu in Japan reached the top of Apple’s free iPhone downloads chart, and ranked second on Android’s Google Play.

The researcher, whose work includes studying information-sharing on Twitter following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, collaborated with the Nikkei to analyse the data.

“Japan has a culture of sharing manga on Twitter,” he said. The novelty of using AI to generate similar pictures was “both a threat and a surprise” to that established audience, but many embraced it out of curiosity.

“For most people, it’s a one-shot, but I think some will continue using it in unique ways.”

The AI art fascination hit its peak in recent months, generating close to 80,000 tweets per day out of Japan. The current flow has dropped to about a third of that, Toriumi said.

Still, he anticipated more new uses in the future, including AI-generated fashion models for clothes companies selling gear online and other potential business applications. BLOOMBERG