February 2019Model Release
ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com
Phillip Wang / NVIDIA StyleGANUber engineer Phillip Wang launches a website that generates a new hyper-realistic human face on every page reload, powered by NVIDIA's StyleGAN. The site is visited 4.2 million times and becomes a cultural moment: the first time the general public confronts AI-generated imagery that is indistinguishable from photography. The concept showed that AI could generate photorealistic faces indistinguishable from real photographs, with no camera, no model, no studio. For creators, it planted a seed: if AI can imagine a face this convincing, what else can it imagine?
Part of 2015-2021 · Before the Dawn
Last updated September 12, 2026