Watch an AI-generated human face become monstrous as its neural network decays

"What I saw before the darkness" shows a human face created by a generative adversarial network, next to the neural memory map representing it. Neurons are removed, and as they go the face loses detail, becomes vague, and finally decays to something that may speak ill of the machine and the mankind that made it.

Memories disappear unwitnessed.
Images gradually fade away
Until one day there is nothing left
But a vague feeling of loss…

Here's the project page: AI Told Me.

Vice's Samantha Cole:

"The inspiration behind the project is rooted in contemplation of human perception," the creator said. "Everything we see is the brain's interpretation of the surrounding world. A person has no access to the outside reality except for this constructed image."

She compared this to how Claude Monet's paintings shifted to blurred, muddled greens and yellows as he aged: Our eyes and brains and the networks that connect them undergo changes and deterioration that we might barely notice as it's happening.