By creating an actual image of a person, these avatars have evolved from appearing in the occasional “Happy Birthday” text to being social-media profile images for millions of users. These hyper-realistic cartoons don’t just resemble the creator, they ARE the creator. Recently, anime character creator apps like Lensa AI have gone viral by allowing users to create cartoons from actual pictures of themselves. In reality, those were simply generic cartoons with the same hairstyle and skin tone as the person who created them. “It has red hair and glasses! It looks just like you!” we would exclaim. Apps like Bitmoji allowed users to create a cartoon version of themselves to appear in text messages and emails.
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