Can we talk about how AI upscaling on old photos is getting worse, not better?

I ran a 2004 family photo through a top AI upscaler last month, and the result looked like a wax museum version of my grandma. Five years ago, the same tool would have just smoothed out the grain, but now it 'invents' faces and textures that weren't there. I think companies are prioritizing 'fancy' over accurate, and the algorithm is filling in details with generic guesses. My sister tried the same app on a 90s concert shot, and it gave the singer an extra eyebrow (no joke). Has anyone else noticed this shift toward fake-looking AI fixes, or am I just feeding it bad originals?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew77822h ago

...and now even my grandma's old passport photo looks like she's about to star in a low-budget horror movie. I'd rather have grainy blobs than some AI hallucination of what it thinks a face should look like (mine ended up with three nostrils once, so I feel your pain).

wright.taylor21h ago

Three nostrils sounds like a bargain for that crisp AI clarity.