A new viral app is making artists out of selfie-clicking Indians

Pokemon GO is not the only tech craze sweeping India. A new photo app that uses Artificial Intelligence to transform mundane images into paintings has caught the imagination of a great many Indians, from Bollywood actors to cat lovers.

The brainchild of Russian developers, Prisma applies the styles of masters such as Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso to digital snapshots. The user only needs to select a picture and pick one of the 33 filters. The intensity of the edits can be adjusted by sliding horizontally across the photograph.

Actor Alia Bhatt recently discovered the app, to the amusement of her fans.

Prisma co-founder Alexey Moiseenkov says the app differs greatly from Instagram’s art filters in that it doesn’t “overlay a filter on the photo”. Instead, it “goes through different layers and recreates the photo from scratch”.

“A unique combination of neural networks and artificial intelligence helps you turn memorable moments into timeless art,” said the app makers.

Released in June, Prisma has styles ranging from gothic to abstract, impressionistic to mosaic. Some filters are modelled after iconic paintings, such as the Great Wave and Scream. There is even a DC comic graphic for superhero lovers.

Its raging popularity – till recently it was getting 1 million users globally every day – has sparked concerns that it “could devalue the work of real artists”, reported The Guardian. Adario Strange, a New York-based writer and artist, tweeted last week:

But that debate is still quite small. Millions of Apple users are merrily using the app, while Android users wait for a non-iOS version to be out soon. There are also talks that there’ll be a video version of the app as well.

Here are some digital brush strokes from Mumbai.

Other Indian cities have also been painted over.

Selfies at historical monuments are getting a fresh burst of life.

Here are some other everyday images through the Prisma lens.