It’s the new trend on social networks. Difficult to surf Instagram, Facebook or TikTok without coming across classy photos high school from the 1990s. Since the beginning of October, many Internet users have shared retro class photos, like yearbookthese American-style photo directories in which the portrait of each student appears.
These very realistic photos, generated using generative artificial intelligence, are offered by the Epik application, developed by Snow Corporation, a South Korean company. Capable of creating false images of you using a few selfies, the application is a hit in France and the United States, where it quickly ranked at the top of downloads on iOS and Android.
Several types of content can be generated by Epik, but the most popular is the “AI Yearbook”. To have your own vintage photo album, simply send eight to twelve selfies of yourself to train the artificial intelligence, which will then generate 60 retouched photos, with an aesthetic straight out of American style series Beverly Hills or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While the Epik app is free, expect to pay between $5.99 and $9.99 for the “AI Yearbook” option.
Many personalities have already tried it, such as the streamer Pokimane or the actress and comedian Laura Felpin. “I succumbed to the Yearbook trend: I gave you the moments of my life at the time when I was casting for Buffy or even when I wanted to integrate the cobra kai…”, explains YouTuber Gastronogeek, who also let himself be tempted by this app.
A risk for personal data
As was the case with the controversial filter app FaceApp, Epik presents serious concerns for the security of users’ personal data. To generate images, the tool uses facial recognition technology and thus collects biometric data and a lot of other information. As for the app’s privacy policy, it provides very few guarantees.
The application is also criticized by artists, in a context where a historic strike in Hollywood has just ended to denounce the use of artificial intelligence in cinema. In a post on the X platform, screenwriter Franchesca Ramsey urged people to stop using it, as selfies can be used to train AI programs in the future. “People paying to train AI with their photos is… bad. There are serious legal and ethical problems. AI is plagiarizing artists and actively putting people out of work. People circulate false images to deceive people and technology is improving thanks to your fashion for high school photos,” she explains in particular.