Miaoya, or Wonderful Duck, is one of the most popular artificial intelligence (AI) applications on Tencent’s social super app WeChat in China today.

It allows users to upload a photo of their face along with a photo album of at least 20 recently taken photos.

To get this portrait, users only need to spend an amount of 9.9 yuan, equivalent to 1.4 USD.

Miaoya is capable of creating studio-quality portraits.

Zhang Yichang, who lives in Zhejiang province, said she used Miaoya to upload 20 photos of herself.

“I think the results are very close to the photos taken by the studio,” she said.

Not only Miaoya, 45ai, another simple AI photo processing application also generated huge traffic after launching last week in China.

In a post on Chinese social e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu on July 25, 45ai said it was experiencing some technical issues due to high traffic and offered some solutions.

AI image processing applications create a new craze globally

Not only in China, other generative AI photo processing applications are also causing a global sensation, such as an application called Remini, which can turn selfie photos on smartphones into portrait photos.

This application even dethroned Meta’s Threads application and rose to number one in the US on Apple’s App Store rankings.

Accordingly, users start by uploading 8 to 12 photos of themselves and choosing their gender.

The “office style” portfolio features models in office attire and creates professional headshots.

Worth mentioning, this AI application works so effectively that many GenZ users have even asked the question: Why pay to hire a photographer, when AI does it equally well?

However, not all users are impressed with the quality that these AI image processing applications bring.

Meanwhile, some other users are either not really satisfied with the output image quality of AI applications like Miaoya or 45ai, or think that the photos are too ‘virtual’ and unrealistic.

“I spent $1.40 and waited for 11 hours, but Miaoya created an output image that focused heavily on the fat bulge above my bra on my right arm, asymmetrical collarbone, and one eyelid

Lucy Liu, 27, a resident of Shanghai, tried taking Barbie-style photos on the 45ai app after her friend sent her an invitation code.

“I can barely recognize myself anymore.

Refer to Insider/SCMP