How to do the AI yearbook photo trend: viral Epik app creates ’90s-style school photos for TikTok, Instagram

Have you noticed people on your social media feed sharing what appear to be their high school yearbook photos? Chances are, they're not actual throwback photos. They've likely been generated with artificial intelligence (AI). A South Korean AI-powered photo editing app called Epik has gone viral for launching an 'AI Yearbook' tool. This tool allows users to create '90s-style photos, complete with the hair, clothes, and background that high schoolers would have had in their yearbooks during that era. Since the release of this new tool, Epik has climbed to the top of both the Apple App Store's 'Photo & Video' and Google Play's photography app charts. According to a spokeswoman for Snow, the parent company of Epik, the app has seen a significant spike in usage with the release of the 'AI Yearbook' feature. In fact, they've witnessed a 30-fold increase in usage since its launch. To use the AI Yearbook, users are invited to upload eight to 12 photos of themselves onto Epik. The app then processes these photos and delivers 60 AI-generated portraits, each with different hairstyles, outfits, and poses set against a backdrop that many '90s students will remember. Some of the high school student stereotypes that have been referenced include cheerleaders, basketball players, and beauty queens. There are two payment options: US$5. 99 and US$9. 99. The cheaper, standard option requires a user to wait 24 hours before receiving their generated photos, while the express option delivers them in just two hours. According to market research company Sensor Tower, Epik is believed to be making around US$250,000 per day in in-app purchases. This latest AI trend has caused quite a stir online. Some users have praised the trend, calling it 'epic', while others have criticized it as 'silly and unrealistic'. Several celebrities, influencers, and moguls have jumped on the trend and shared their results online. These include Korean reality show host Yoo Jae-suk, Korean actress Jung Yu-mi, Korean singer Lee Hyo-ri, former Hong Kong athlete Vivian Ma Wing-yu, and Korean business magnate Chey Tae-won. Because Epik has more global users than Korean ones, the Snow spokeswoman says AI Yearbook targets its wider audience. She believes that Western users feel nostalgic about retaking their yearbook photos, while Asians who are familiar with the yearbook concept but have not experienced it can have fun with the app and ask themselves, 'What if I was featured in a '90s yearbook? ' Epik is not the only app to employ AI in this way. Japanese messenger app Line's 'AI Teens' tool allows users to reimagine themselves as cool kids, and photography app Carat: AI Profile creates studio-ready portraits. Despite Epik's soaring popularity, some critics have raised concerns over the app's potential user privacy and data security problems due to its disclosure practices and the lack of data on information sharing. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, a branch of the South Korean government, recently announced it would be banning AI-generated portrait photos from being used on Korean national ID cards and passports, stating that such photos violate current guidelines prohibiting the use of morphed images.