The Viral AI App That’s Triggering Baby Fever

A new AI photo app is triggering baby fever among a population better known for delaying parenthood plans. 

The app is Remini. It dethroned Meta Platforms ’ new Twitter competitor, Threads, to become the most popular free-to-download app in Apple’s App Store. It lets users generate images of themselves in wedding dresses or pregnant in maternity wear. Remini will even serve up family portraits showing the user with AI-generated babies.

Ziyah Brown, a 35-year-old makeup artist in Cincinnati, has spent most of the past decade focusing on her small business and preparing to buy her dream home: a five-bedroom house she closed on in November.

“In my 20s, I was too busy and never really had time for kids,” she said. “As I got older and became an aunt, I just accepted it probably wasn’t going to happen, and I stopped thinking about it. ”

On Tuesday, those feelings changed when she stumbled across Remini, she said.

The app was like a magic mirror showing a future self: a photo of her expecting, plus a string of group portraits where she has children all bearing a striking family resemblance.

“Feelings of motherhood rushed over me,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘Wow, now I can actually see myself being there at some point.’”

How you use it

The app works a lot like Lensa. On Remini, users upload a dozen selfies, either alone or with a partner, and the app uses artificial intelligence to generate images. The iOS and Android app has a three-day free trial and costs $10 a week after that for access to all of its advanced photo-editing tools.

The company said it frequently adjusts pricing and features. 

Remini launched in 2019 with software to enhance photo clarity, such as making blurry images clearer. Last year, it added generative AI, which picks up on your appearance through selfies, and lets you create artsy avatars. 

In May, it included the ability to choose from preset themes to generate six images at a time. In recent weeks, it added the pregnancy template and others that include a child. Sometimes, the AI spits out another partner, or multiple children.

The company intended for users to create childhood versions of themselves. However, people have started uploading photos of themselves and partners to see what the children they have together might look like.

Unlike Lensa, which produces cartoonlike imagery, Remini’s results look more like real photographs.

“We found that these are the photos that create a stronger emotional reaction in people,” said Luca Ferrari, co-founder and chief executive of the app’s developer, Milan-based Bending Spoons. “The secret sauce is this degree of photo realism.”

Some drawbacks

Remini faces some of the same problems as other AI image generators. The app can take several minutes to render images, and not all the photo results are realistic. There are some obvious flaws with how AI renders hands, and both babies and parents can appear wildly misconfigured.

Sometimes, the app will spit out zany photos. During testing, we sometimes received family photos with two nearly identical parents. It also occasionally changed our race. 

“Retaining the user’s identity as accurately as possible is one of the hardest challenges with these algorithms,” said Matteo Danieli, co-founder of Bending Spoons. “We’re making an enormous effort to mitigate identity preservation issues.”

As for privacy and protection of users’ image files, the company said uploaded photos are stored on its servers and, at times, encrypted. Photos, facial data processed for AI images and the AI depictions are deleted from its servers after 30 days. Users can email the company’s data department to request data deletion at any time.

While the hype lasts, a generation that had been avoiding family matters suddenly has more to ponder over.

“When you can vividly imagine your future self, you start to care more about it,” said Cristina Atance, a professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa studying cognitive development. “But it’s a double-edged sword. It can lead you to become complacent and not think about the steps it takes to make it happen.”

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Write to Dalvin Brown at [email protected]