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# This Is Not a Cat
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/this-is-not-a-cat-style-gan-ai-algorithm/
- Published: 2021-07-26T16:33:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:50:04.000Z
- Description: These feline beauties were created entirely by an algorithm.
- Author: Hakim Bishara
- Tags: News, Artificial Intelligence, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-small, #Import 2025-11-24 09:11 (2021, 2022, part 1)

Look at the cat in the photo above. It looks real, doesn’t it? It’s not! This feline beauty was created entirely by an algorithm. Every time you refresh the webpage [This Cat Does Not Exist](https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), you’ll get a different algorithm-generated, hyperrealistic cat. Confused? Scared? So are we.

These images were created with a machine-learning technology called [Style-GAN](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.04948?ref=hyperallergic.com). It's an AI algorithm that can learn how to sketch almost anything, including human faces, by studying hundreds of thousands of existing images. And as we know, there's no shortage of cat pictures on the internet.

Below are some more AI-conceived cats that never lived a day on this earth.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_2.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_4-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_6-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_5-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_8.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat_7.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/cat1-1.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2021/07/download.jpg)

Algorithm-generated cats courtesy thiscatdoesnotexist.com