WhatsApp is developing a feature to generate profile photos using artificial intelligence. All you need to do is describe the desired image in a few words to create it.
Would you like to use some artificial intelligence again? The popular instant messaging service WhatsApp will also get its dose of AI – after all, it’s all the rage at the moment! Meta, the parent company, had clearly announced that it was going to integrate several tools of this type into the application, such as the generation of personalized stickers and a chatbot called Meta AI with which we can chat and obtain information. But she doesn’t plan to stop there! The specialized site WABetaInfo discovered, in the beta version 2.24.11.17 of the WhatsApp Android application, an option to create a profile photo with AI. The feature is still under development.
WhatsApp: an alternative to personal photos
WhatsApp should therefore welcome a new function allowing you to generate a profile photo by directly entering a prompt describing the desired image. We can see, in the screenshot above, a header stating “Create AI Profile Picture” – “Create an AI profile picture” in French. Below is a text entry field inviting you to describe an image, with the star icon specific to generative AI.
With AI-generated profile photos, users will be able to create personalized images that reflect their personality, interests or mood more accurately than a standard photo. But besides the fun aspect, this function should improve the confidentiality of profiles. Indeed, using these photos made in AI, users will have an alternative to avoid sharing real personal photos, which can reduce the risk of misuse or unauthorized sharing of their images. Indeed, it is not uncommon for WhatsApp profile photos, which can be displayed in full screen by everyone, to be stolen by malicious people for the purposes of identity theft or harassment – a function allowing to prevent screenshots of profile photos is also being developed to counter this problem (see our article).
As the AI profile image creation function is under development, we can hope that it will arrive in the stable version of the application within a few months. It remains to be seen whether the safeguards deployed will be sufficient to prevent excesses. We still remember the generations of child soldier stickers during the tests…