Doppleganger

For a while I ran an AI-generated profile picture. It smoothed over a few key details: my chipped tooth (well, teeth now, since I chipped a second one on a guava seed), the mole on my chin, and a handful of other small imperfections.

I left it up as a little experiment, half hoping someone close to me would notice and call it out. For three weeks, nobody did, except one colleague. We were mid-conversation about her upcoming conference talk, sorting out travel support, when out of nowhere she said, “BTW, what’s with the AI profile pic?” I was floored. “How did you know?” I asked.

What got me was that this is someone I see and talk to maybe once a month. To be fair, if it weren’t for the tooth and the mole, even I might not have caught the difference, though in my defense, I also don’t stare at my own face all that often. 😛

I can think of maybe one more person who could’ve spotted it. And I’m fairly certain she’d have beaten everyone else to it.