41 Comments
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Mar 16, 2025
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Robert F. Graboyes's avatar

Sorry — limit is one guess on one picture period. Only one name. But I’ll leave your guesses here up.

Jackson Houser's avatar

oops. I misread your instructions. I was about to post another guess, and then re-read your instructions. I apologize. I will re-comment here only about #20, then: John C. Calhoun

Joel J Miller's avatar

Fun project! And great seeing the side-by-side comparisons and discussion of job impacts. So far my experience of AI has been largely in my professional and home life. What I’ve found is that it facilitates work on a task level well. Sometimes the prompting is cumbersome and outputs subpar (even after lots of refinements, extra training, etc.), but I’d rather have it than not.

Paul A Sand's avatar

I'll guess #11 is George Washington.

Fred's avatar

Boy, did I ever miss the point originally! Historical pix redone. Ok -- #20 - Andrew Jackson.

Pretty blank on the rest of them.

Fred's avatar

#8 - Justin Trudeau. I'm not very good remembering faces, though, so I wouldn't bet much on it.

I originally guessed two faces, then saw I was supposed to limit it to one. Sorry.

Robert F. Graboyes's avatar

No problem! I'll give you another chance. None of the images representing people who are alive today. Most are from long ago.

alexander.helphand's avatar

This is a truly interesting thought. Who knows how contemporaries saw other people. George Washington for instance seems to have an innate dignity? See some of what people like Adams and Jefferson when they were playing pranks on fellow delegates did not play them on him. Portraits can't begin to pick that up. Even though again, we can look at him let us say with a more modern eye. With AI

Fred's avatar

Ok, here's another twist to this technique: find a childhood photo of a well-known older individual (a sports figure or actor when he was a lot younger, for example, who is now in their fifties or sixties) then ask Grok to age the young photo to their current age and compare the results with the actual person. That occurs to me because when I look photos of a much younger me, I would never have supposed I would look like I do in my eighties.

Robert F. Graboyes's avatar

There are AI programs that will do this, but I don't think you can just feed a photo into Grok and ask that it be manipulated. For an example of what you're discussing, read about the striking painting of a young, beautiful Martha Washington, produced by a team of historians, forensic anthropologists, and artists: https://linesandcolors.com/2009/02/16/reconstructing-martha-washington/

Fred's avatar

Fun article! Thanks.

Urey Patrick's avatar

#10 - Edgar Allen Poe

ChainRing's avatar

#2 Mona Lisa

Gamma Draconis's avatar

#24 Queen Elizabeth I

Harry's avatar

I’m guessing Catherine the Great for #24. Also, Henry VIII sure had a thing for redheads, didn’t he? I’d never noted that before.

AWW Wilson's avatar

#11 Julius Caesar

Jorg's avatar

I have enjoyed Segovia's work, and now yours. You are correct that there are interesting and important differences. But is that not the essence of art? and I couldn't say that I prefer one over the other.

And I cannot say that any of yours stand out enough that I would care to make a guess. I think that, for me, it is interesting to not that "people of promonence" or perhaps people of historical note of course probably looked pretty 'ordinadry'. Why would they not. Most were/are not really know for their looks.

Anyway, this is a wonderful idea.

Robert F. Graboyes's avatar

And I can't say that I prefer my work over Segovia's. They're different. And I do think that the automation inherent in mine portends much for AI impacts on labor markets.

Jorg's avatar

P.S. SOme great guesses. My mind simply doesn't seem to want to work that way.

Robert F. Graboyes's avatar

You're always perceptive. Give it a try! :)

Bill Gillis's avatar

#2 Mona Lisa

#4 Helen of Troy

#24 Queen Victoria

#25 Ben Franklin

Ehud Neor's avatar

I was taught that it should be an eye.

RJ's avatar

OK, I'll have a lash at a few:

#11- Thomas Jefferson

#12- a trimmed Frederick Douglass?

#13 - Harriet Tubman

#18 - Queen Victoria (Edit: obv. meant 19)

And a WAG:

#3 - Al Capone?

RJ's avatar

Ooh - #26 - Sam Adams

(I recognize the shadowing more than the face.)