030 AI Tools I Love #2: Aragon.ai: AI Makes Quality Headshots of You for $35

Summary
AI for headshots!

In this episode, Dr. Joan Palmiter Bajorek discusses Aragon.ai, a generative AI tool designed to create professional headshots. She highlights the ease of use, privacy features, and the impressive output quality of the photos generated. Joan also touches on the ethical considerations surrounding AI-generated images and the affordability of the service compared to traditional photography.

Check out Aragon

And the cover of this episode? Yup, an image from Aragon

• Aragon.ai allows users to generate new headshots from existing photos.
• The tool is designed to alleviate the stress of getting professional photos.
• Privacy is a key feature, allowing only personal photos to be used.
• The output quality can vary, with some photos looking more like the user than others.
• The service is affordable compared to hiring a professional photographer.
• Joan found the tool practical and actionable for personal branding.
• The pricing structure offers different tiers for individual and team use.
• Ethical considerations around AI-generated images are important to discuss.
• Joan encourages feedback on the tool from listeners.
• Generative AI can simplify the process of obtaining professional images.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Aragon.ai and Its Purpose
• 2:57 Features and Benefits of Aragon.ai
• 5:56 Pricing and Ethical Considerations

Transcript

0:00

Hey folks, here's another episode about AI tools I love. And today we're gonna talk about the tool, Aragon.ai. Now, a lot of people I talk with have headshots they're not thrilled about. Maybe you go on their LinkedIn and the image doesn't actually look like them or they took it at some kind of career fair and they look all stuffy. I've also seen people use their wedding photos as profiles online. not ideal for professional contexts. And Aragon.ai is a generative AI company where you put in 20 headshots, 20 selfies, 20 photos of your face, and it will pop out new versions. So for example, when I was running that boot camp, had someone try out They saying like, had always put off a new headshot. I'm worried about what outfit to buy. Then I have to find someone to take the photo. Will I have a good hair day? You know, there's all these, the stress and freaking out. And so he tried Aragon and he got the selfies in, got some awesome photos out. And it actually looked more like him when he posted it online. I'm not gonna say who this is, but I was like, that's really good. photo giving his personality. It still looked professional, but it, if that makes sense, it looked more like him than a stuffy previous photo that was super corporate and buttoned up and kind of looked cold as compared to the professional and warm hearted person that I knew. So they have built out Aragon.ai. I've tried it out for some cool headshots. They've now built out doctor headshots, lawyer headshots. real estate, dating photos, Christmas photos, yearbook photos, it's really cool. Now you may say, wow, that's awesome, professional photos, or otherwise, I dig it. But you know, what's going on with my photos? Can anyone in the world use this? Well, they have all these privacy features and you can only do photos of yourself for yourself. You have full access to the photos and to use them. for your doctor or real estate or whatever context. They have, I was really impressed with how thoughtful they were in their privacy policies, which you can check out online. It looks like on their website today, as of when I'm recording this, they have generated over 25 million headshots for over a million professionals and teams. And I really liked the photo output. I will say some of the photos looked like me that came out of Aragon. Some of them did not look like me. I showed them to a friend and he was like, that's kind of creepy. Like some of them look like you and some of them look like your sister. And some of them look kind of like a weird composite of other people. But as with any AI tool, this is how good it is today and how good it could be tomorrow. And opportunities for you don't always have to get gussied up in hair and makeup and have the best lighting and professional photographer, et cetera, to still get an amazing headshot professional photo that you may need or want for all of your social media needs. And if you look on their website, it's pretty impressive that you're like, isn't that a real person? Maybe you've seen some of these generative AI photos that you're like, it's so smoothed, like no one has skin like that, or just it looks... Do know that softness that's kind of smearing the pixels? So this one is the best one I've found so far. I've tried it out myself. You can also use like a magic eraser. They have this feature where like you're like, my face looks good, but my hair, can we tweak something? And you can move that around. You can change the background. They have different settings. But here's the thing. You're probably saying like, my gosh, okay, how much does this actually cost? So as of today, as I'm looking at this, it's $35 for 20 headshots. It might take around two hours to generate it. I'm assuming there's an AI automated component and some maybe human moderators on the back end and one background for that $35. And $45, $75, there's different tiers. You could also do it for teams if your whole company wants to do these as well. So 35 bucks. for 20 pretty strong headshots. I found that I thought like two to five were ones I'd actually posted on my socials that looked pretty much like me. But I think, you know, it can be way, way cheaper than hiring a photographer, getting a new outfit, just an outfit. You think I could get a fancy, fancy outfit and my hair and makeup done and a photographer for $35? Not so much. So this is a really cool tool. I've seen work really well for me and for others. I do think there's some ethical questions and some responsible AI and as we think about deep fakes. But like I said, this is a tool so far that I trust and like. And yeah, I think I like them so much. I think there's an affiliate code that I signed up for to get you all discounts. They don't pay me anything to say this, but you can go to airgon.ai slash question mark via equals Joan. Okay, that was too long and too hard. I'll put it in the show notes. But here is an example of an AI tool that I find super practical and super actionable. And I am looking forward to hearing your responses of how you think about this tool. So generative AI, photos for you. You upload some photos, choose background and get some photos out. Hope you enjoy this one. and look forward to seeing you in the next one.