The Epik AI Yearbook Trend Taking Over Social Media

Summary

The AI-powered app Epic has taken social media by storm, transforming users' photos into '90s yearbook-style images. This trend not only raises questions about privacy and data usage but also reflects societal attitudes towards self-perception and authenticity. The app's success, following similar trends with Lensa and Remini, highlights the lucrative potential of AI in the selfie era and the ethical considerations surrounding image manipulation and AI-generated content. The phenomenon also underscores the broader implications of AI adoption in everyday life, as millions engage with the technology through a simple, social trend.

Takeaways

• 📸 The trend of AI-generated yearbook photos from the Epic app has gone viral on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.
• 💡 This trend highlights the intersection of AI technology with societal issues such as privacy, data usage, and self-perception.
• 🤔 The success of the Epic app raises questions about the future of personal identity and how AI can reshape our understanding of ourselves.
• 💸 Despite charging for the service, the app's popularity has led to significant revenue, indicating a willingness among consumers to pay for AI-driven personal experiences.
• 💰 The profitability of AI selfie apps like Epic, Lensa, and Remini demonstrates the potential for leveraging AI to create viral, shareable content that generates income.
• 🧠 The use of AI in creating images brings up ethical considerations about authenticity, memory, and the long-term implications of digital representation.
• 🌐 The popularity of AI apps like Chat GPT and Lensa indicates a growing public interest in and acceptance of AI technology.
• 📈 The rapid rise and success of these AI apps suggest a pattern of consumer behavior and societal trends that can be leveraged for future technological innovations.
• 🚨 Controversies surrounding AI image generation tools, such as concerns over body editing and the use of AI to create 'deepfakes', reflect broader societal norms and expectations.
• 📝 The use of AI in personal image creation has implications for privacy and data security, with questions about how data is stored and used.
• 🌟 The adoption of AI through social trends may represent a new phase in public engagement with technology, where personalization and social sharing are key drivers.

Q & A

What is the main feature of the Epic app mentioned in the transcript?

The main feature of the Epic app is that it takes users' photos and transforms them into 1990s yearbook-style images.

What are some of the societal and ethical questions raised by the use of AI in creating yearbook photos?

The use of AI in creating yearbook photos raises questions about privacy, data usage, self-perception, authenticity, memory, and the ethics of image manipulation. It also brings up concerns about the line between enhancement and fabrication in personal image representation.

How has the Epic app performed in terms of revenue and popularity?

The Epic app has become highly lucrative, making around a million dollars per day through in-app purchases and has become the number one app in the US app store across all categories.

What is the significance of the timing of the Epic app's popularity in relation to other AI trends?

The timing of the Epic app's popularity is significant as it follows a pattern observed with other AI-powered apps like Chat GPT and Lensa, suggesting a recurring interest in AI technologies and their integration into social media trends.

What concerns have been raised about the portrayal of women in AI image generation apps?

There have been concerns that AI image generation apps may produce overly sexualized images of women, contributing to unrealistic body expectations and potentially exacerbating issues like body dysmorphia and poor self-esteem.

How does the use of AI in image generation intersect with discussions about deepfake technology and policy?

The use of AI in image generation brings up questions about the regulation of deepfake technology, especially in the context of personal privacy, consent, and the potential for misuse in political and social contexts.

What is the role of AI in shaping our relationship with our own representations?

AI is changing our relationship with our representations by providing us with new technologies that allow us to reimagine and alter our images in ways that were not previously possible, leading to shifts in how we perceive and present ourselves.

How might the Hollywood strikes and usage rights be impacted by AI-generated images?

AI-generated images could potentially conflict with Hollywood strikes and usage rights, as celebrities using these apps may inadvertently sign away their likenesses for future use, undermining the negotiations they have with studios.

What are the implications of AI adoption through social media trends for the general public?

The adoption of AI through social media trends suggests that many people's first interactions with AI are based on simple, social-minded use cases, which could influence their perceptions and understanding of AI technologies.

What broader societal norms and ideals are intersecting with technology through AI image generation?

AI image generation intersects with societal norms and ideals such as beauty standards, body image, and self-perception, potentially exacerbating existing issues and prompting discussions about the role of technology in shaping these ideals.

How might the yearbook trend influence the future development and use of AI in social media?

The yearbook trend, while potentially temporary, provides insights into how AI can be integrated into social media in a way that resonates with users, suggesting that future AI applications may continue to focus on user-centric, visually engaging experiences.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 AI Yearbook Photos Trend and its Implications

The first paragraph discusses the AI yearbook photo trend powered by the Epic app, which has taken social media by storm. It highlights the app's ability to transform users' photos into 1990s-style yearbook images, raising questions about privacy, data usage, and self-perception. The trend's profitability is noted, with the app earning significant revenue from in-app purchases. The segment also touches on the broader societal impact, including the ethics of image manipulation and the changing relationship with personal representation through technology. The trend is linked to a pattern of AI-powered apps, suggesting a deeper societal and technological shift.

05:00

💰 The Business and Controversy Behind AI Photo Apps

The second paragraph delves into the business aspect of AI photo apps, particularly the Lensa app, which has a history of controversy. It discusses the financial success of these apps, with Lensa reportedly earning over $70 million during its peak. The paragraph also explores the challenges faced by these apps, including claims of body dysmorphia and the potential infringement on user rights. The discussion extends to the political implications of AI-generated images, with concerns about deepfake policies and the impact on elections. The paragraph concludes by reflecting on the role of these apps in introducing AI to the public through social media trends.

Keywords

💡AI yearbook photos

AI yearbook photos refer to the use of artificial intelligence to transform users' current photos into ones that resemble yearbook pictures from the 1990s. This concept is central to the video's theme, as it explores the societal impact and ethical considerations of using AI for personal image manipulation. The app 'epic' is mentioned as a platform that popularized this trend, turning users into various high school archetypes like jocks, cheerleaders, and nerds.

💡Social media

Social media refers to the platforms that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. In the context of the video, social media is where the AI yearbook photo trend has taken off, particularly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. It is the medium through which this AI technology has been widely disseminated and adopted.

💡Privacy

Privacy concerns the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. In the video, privacy is a significant issue as AI apps like 'epic' require users to upload personal photos, raising questions about data security and potential misuse of personal information.

💡Data usage

Data usage refers to the way in which data is collected, stored, and utilized, especially by applications and services. In the video, data usage is a critical aspect as AI apps need access to user photos to function, prompting discussions about the ethical handling of personal data and the potential for misuse.

💡Self-perception

Self-perception refers to the way individuals view and understand themselves. The video discusses how AI-driven self-imagination tools like the yearbook photo trend can influence users' self-image by allowing them to see themselves in different contexts or as different personas.

💡Deep fake policy

Deep fake policy refers to the regulations and guidelines that govern the creation and distribution of deepfakes, which are synthetic media where a person's likeness is replaced with someone else's. The video touches on the importance of establishing policies for deep fakes, especially as AI technologies become more integrated into social media and everyday life.

💡Narcissism

Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by excessive self-love or self-centeredness. In the video, the term is used to describe the potential motivation behind the popularity of AI self-imagination apps, suggesting that users' desire to see idealized versions of themselves drives the success of these apps.

💡Authenticity

Authenticity refers to the quality of being genuine, original, and not a copy. In the context of the video, authenticity is a key concern as AI-generated images challenge the notion of what is real and original, particularly in terms of personal identity and memory.

💡Ethics of image manipulation

The ethics of image manipulation pertain to the moral considerations involved in altering visual content, especially when it involves people's appearances. The video discusses the ethical implications of using AI to create entirely new images of individuals, questioning where the line should be drawn between enhancement and fabrication.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI refers to the subset of artificial intelligence that is used to create new content, such as images, music, or text. In the video, generative AI is the technology behind the AI yearbook photo trend, enabling the creation of novel images based on user-uploaded photos.

💡AI adoption

AI adoption refers to the process of integrating and using artificial intelligence technologies in various aspects of life, including social interactions and personal expression. The video examines how AI-powered apps have been adopted by the public through simple, social-minded use cases, such as the AI yearbook photo trend.

Highlights

Epic's AI yearbook photos are taking over social media, raising questions about the state of AI and society.

The trend involves an app that turns user-uploaded photos into 1990s-style yearbook photos, sparking discussions on privacy and data usage.

The app's success, becoming the number one app in the US, indicates a willingness among consumers to pay for AI-generated self-images.

Venture investor Justine Moore suggests that AI selfie apps capitalize on human narcissism, creating a lucrative market.

Professor Shelley Palmer notes the blend of nostalgia and cutting-edge technology in the AI yearbook trend, but raises questions about authenticity and memory.

The trend also brings up ethical concerns about image manipulation and where the line should be drawn between enhancement and fabrication.

The AI yearbook trend is part of a pattern of AI-powered apps that gained popularity, following the launch of chat GPT last year.

The Lensa app, another AI image generation app, faced controversy over sexualized images and allegations of ripping off digital artists' work.

Rini, an AI avatar app, went viral by turning selfies into professional headshots, but faced criticism for unrealistic body editing.

The yearbook trend raises questions about the implications of AI in Hollywood strikes and the use of likenesses for future content.

Privacy concerns are highlighted as the app claims to delete photos immediately, but questions remain about data storage and future recognition.

The political dimension involves concerns from politicians about deepfakes, especially in the context of upcoming elections.

AI adoption through social trends allows for a large number of people to interact with AI technology in a simple, social context.

The AI yearbook trend, while possibly short-lived, offers lessons about the current state of AI and societal attitudes towards technology.

The success of AI-driven apps shows the potential for technology to go viral based on single-use cases that are designed with social media in mind.

Transcripts

epic's AI yearbook photos are absolutely

taking over social media today we're

exploring what it says about the state

of AI as well as what it says about the

state of society welcome back to the AI

breakdown today we are talking nominally

about a trend that has taken over Tik

Tok and Instagram and Twitter and

basically all of social media which is a

new feature from an app called epic that

takes people's photos and turns them

into 1990s yearbook photos now there is

a ton that makes this interesting to me

it brings up questions of privacy and

data usage I think it has things to

teach us about how people try and get

onboarded to artificial intelligence it

brings up questions about the future of

self-perception and it even relates to

deep fake policy so let's talk about

what the actual trend is and then we're

going to look at why it's part of an

interesting pattern that goes back to

last year right around the same time

that chat GPT launched so what is this

trend well basically it is one of these

apps where you upload head-on images

give it a little bit of information in

this case things like gender and then

sit back back and basically let it do

its work the app turns those photos and

makes the user both younger as well as

putting them in a set of clothes and

setups that look like a number of

different '90s high schooler archetypes

there's the jock the cheerleader the

nerd now interestingly this is not a

free experience people have to pay for

these photos and yet still it has become

the number one app in the US app store

across all categories investor Olivia

Moore points out that this is extremely

lucrative over the past week the company

has been making around a quar million

dollars per day via inapp purchases and

that's likely going to do nothing but

increase as people share this trend more

and more media like this reports on it

now Olivia's interpretation is that

quote consumers are willing to pay for

multiple apps and post the results even

if it's cringey allowing people to

reimagine themselves triggers something

powerful now some think that a better

word for this is narcissism another

venture investor Justine Moore says

never bet against narcissism AI selfie

apps like lenza Remini and now epic have

proved that you can print millions of

dollars in a week by helping people make

images of themselves and they're

inherently viral because everyone shares

the outputs now this self-imagination is

really fascinating Professor Shelley

Palmer writes the rise of Epic has

spotlighted a curious Trend students

opting for generative AI images in their

school yearbooks at face value it's a

novel application of Technology blending

Nostalgia with The Cutting Edge but it

raises questions about authenticity

memory and our posterity imagine future

Generations flipping through old

yearbooks look here's an old-fashioned

generative AI image of Grandpa in high

school gee I wonder what he really

looked like at that age it's a statement

that sounds almost real the trend also

raises broader questions about the

ethics of image manipulation we already

Photoshop everything from smoothing out

wrinkles to adjusting lighting we

enhance images all the time is

generating an entirely new image with AI

where we draw the line if so why where's

the boundary between enhancement and

Fabrication it's a distinction that

might seem subtle but it will have

profound implications basically the

point that he's making is that our

relationship with representations of

ourselves is changing it's changing

because we have access to a technology

that we never had access to before but

even if one goes into understanding

change without bringing the bias of

change being good or bad to it it's

impossible to not recognize that this

represents something shifting now as I

mentioned this is part of a pattern of

AI powered apps that suggests to me that

there is something more to learn here

above and beyond just the fact that

people like this stuff back in December

of last year just after chat GPT

launched chat GPT was not the only

artificial intelligence app that I saw

my entire Community talking about on

their social media in fact even more

visible to me in some ways was the lenza

app which was an AI image generation app

app that once again took photos of

people from their Instagram and Facebook

profiles and turned them into highly

idealized imaginative AI versions of

themselves indeed I still have tons of

people on Facebook who have never

changed their lensa AI profile pictures

ever since they added them back last

year in a lot of ways I actually think

that for many people the combination of

chat gbt as this fundamentally new thing

something that we had never seen before

in terms of an AI that could actually

talk back at us and write things

coherently and interestingly and give us

information in a total new way that

combined with something that was much

more Visual and visceral in the form of

the lensa AI app was this potent

cocktail a onew punch that announced

artificial intelligence in a huge way

one breakout app even a really

interesting one is not a trend but two

things blowing up and going viral at the

same time across multiple dimensions of

this new thing called generative Ai and

that was something that people felt like

they had to pay attention to now of

course with any image generation tool

and particularly one that's going to

take images of real people it was

probably inevitable that there would be

some amount of controversy lenza had no

shortage of it CNN style wrote about the

fact that for some people women in

particular the app seemed to produce

overly sexualized images another

complaint about the app which is of

course part of a much broader Trend that

we talk about here all the time was that

digital artists said that it was a

ripoff of their work now Leno was

powered by stable diffusion and so it

was really the way that stable diffusion

was trained that was the source of

artist a obviously as we know this is a

very unresolved issue even up to now

lensa also had quite an interesting

history as a company in January of this

year NPR wrote a piece called a rocky

past haunts the mysterious company

behind the lenza AI photo app the

article begins aella ruian millionaire

living in Cyprus a dinner with the CEO

of snap a six-figure patent troll case

these are all a part of the history of

Prisma Labs a largely obscure artificial

intelligence startup that spent years

under the radar until November when the

company introduced magic avatars now one

really interesting piece of data from

that outside of any of the interesting

Intrigue around the company's history

apparently in November when the app was

at Peak hype the netted more than $70

million from the app now of course when

entrepreneurs see apps going viral they

think about how they could do a

different version of that same thing and

a couple months later in the middle of

this year we saw another viral AI Avatar

Trend in the form of Rini now at first

what made Rini go viral was people

particularly on Tik Tok using it to turn

their selfies into professional head

shot users wondered why if they had

access to this technology they would

ever pay for professional photos ever

again like epic has in the last couple

days the Rini app sored all all the way

up to the number one spot on Apple's App

Store charts now once again this was a

multiple years to overnight success sort

of story Rini had launched initially in

2019 and hadn't added generative AI to

the app until 2022 and of course it

wasn't until this specific use case of

these professional head shot that it

actually shot up to top the charts and

once again there was controversy in July

Insider published a piece called

ticktockers are flocking to the viral

photo app ramini but some say it's

editing their bodies beyond recognition

it was not just that Rini was

occasionally adding extra fingers but

that in some cases it seemed to be

making people unrecognizably skinnier

one user captioned a Tik Tok video when

you can't use your AI head shot because

it took off 80 pounds and everyone would

notice now this particular person just

viewed it with humor and even said it

gave them some fitness inspiration but

it's obviously brought up much bigger

questions of larger societal Norms of

questions of body ideals that are now

intersecting directly with technology

said one user for women especially body

dysmorphia and poor self-esteem is at an

all-time high due to social media I hope

that women and men who have used these

apps to generate these headshots can see

past the over edited fakeness and look

back in the mirror and see a really rad

and unique person now zooming back up to

the yearbook Trend there are a couple

different dimensions of its particular

brand of controversy one actually has to

do with the recent Hollywood strikes

Newsweek writes with artificial

intelligence and usage rights flagged as

concerns during the recent wga and sag

after strikes why are some celebrities

taking part in the trend continuing they

write some actors pointed out on social

media that by using the app to create

the yearbook photos celebrities are

signing away their likenesses and imag

for future use this is called into

question whether the simplet to use app

undermines the months of strikes now

it's getting a little bit beyond the

scope of this show but lawyers for sag

Afra basically said that whatever the

terms of service of this app say they

actually don't outweigh whatever

negotiations are going on that this

random app's terms of service doesn't

undermine what celebrities have

negotiated with the studios still it's a

fascinating reflection on how these

seemingly small things can be implicated

in a part of much bigger conversations

another big question is of course

privacy can someone explain how this

makes sense even though the app claims

to delete the photos immediately isn't a

data stored for future recognition and

then there's the political dimension of

this yesterday in an unrelated story two

Democrat members of Congress sent a

letter to the CEOs of meta and X

basically saying that they needed to get

on board with new policies around deep

fakes particularly in the wake of the

upcoming elections said senator Amy

kashar they are two of the largest

platforms and voters deserve to know

what guardrails are being put in place

we are simply asking them can't you do

this why aren't you doing this it's

clearly technologically possible now of

course the Deep fakes here that the

politicians are worried about are

political deep fakes and

misrepresentations of politicians who

might be running for election but the

whole deep fake policy gets a lot more

complicated when people are basically

putting up fakes of themselves when this

has just become a normal part of the new

social experience the last dimension of

this that I want to point out has to do

with questions of AI adoption ultimately

all of these different apps that have

gone viral over the last year haven't

gone viral because of some novel

technology none of them are more

powerful than mid Journey or dolly or

anything like that what they've done is

rip out the complex and design an entire

experience around a single socialm

minded use case what that has meant is

that a huge number of people's first

interactions with artificial

intelligence are on the basis of an

extremely simple social Trend Perhaps it

is not surprising that it's a trend that

puts them and their likeness at the very

center of the experience my strong guess

is that in about a week the yearbook

Trend will be almost entirely played out

but I think that the lessons that it has

to teach us about the state of AI and

the state of society remain anyways

interesting little conversation for the

end of the week I appreciate you guys

listening or watching as always and

until next time peace