AI-generated hidden messages are running rampant on the internet

By creammagazine, October 4, 2023

Optical illusions on the internet are nothing new. I’ve often found myself mid-scroll on Facebook staring at an image to see if I can spot the hidden face amid a bushy landscape.

They say that staring at optical illusions is actually good for the brain – in practicing our abilities to see past misleading context, we can train our brain to be more accurate when interpreting images on other occasions.

Some optical illusions are classics and have been around since before the world wide web – think of that drawing you saw as a kid when you were prompted if you could see an old woman’s face or a young woman turning her head? That one freaked me out at the tender age of 12.

Modern illusions border even more on the freakish, with the blue dress versus gold dress debate immediately springing to mind.

Now, with the help of AI software, optical illusions – also known as hidden imagery art – are running rampant on the net once more. Clever graphic designers and cunning illustrators are using software such as Adobe, or simpler software such as Fotor, Gimp or Pincel to create picture montages that, at closer inspection, spell out some rather spooky shit. Take the following example that had tongues wagging on X recently:

At first glance it looks like a photograph of people walking on a street, but pull the phone away from you and you’ll see the word ‘OBEY’ as clear as day. When the post first appeared on Reddit, it received almost 2,000 upvotes within two days and quickly went viral.

Soon, other pictures began circulating with optimistic words appearing out of the imagery – words like OKAY, LIKE, and LOVE but also more sinister text such as HACKER and THEY LIE creeping into the works.

There’s even an innocent looking pic of puppy dogs jumping in a row that at closer inspection spells SEND NUDES.

Often, the viewer has to step back if seeing the image on a desktop computer, or move their phone away to see a smaller version of the image in order to see the words clearly.

The AI technology enabling this kind of content came about in June 2023, when Monster Labs released a package on Hugging Face (a platform where AI researchers and enthusiasts post various code and models they’re working on) that allowed users to generate QR codes hidden inside of other illustrations.

Some results can look complex but the creation of such images is actually fairly easy even with simple AI-generating software.

In Pincel, for example, you simply key in your text on a transparent background (best centred, in large font), upload a reference image (this is the image that will serve as the foundation for your optical illusion; think of it as an outline) or key in a picture prompt (eg: “a beautiful nature landscape”), hit ‘generate’ and a resulting pic will appear. You can tweak the contrast to make the word stand out more or less obviously.

Logos within images are proving popular, too. See if you can spot the bitcoin logo in this pic: