Pakistani celebrities embrace AI ‘80s trend as fans question deepfake risks

Social media was taken over by AI this week as people around the world, including Pakistani celebrities, turned to ChatGPT to imagine what they might have looked like in the 1980s.

While the trend quickly went viral, it also drew criticism, with users raising concerns about the misuse of AI, deepfakes, privacy and identity theft.

On Instagram, several celebrities and entertainment pages, including Saboor Aly and Yasir Hussain, shared AI-generated images of themselves reimagined as 1980s stars.

The posts prompted some fans to question the growing use of AI for such content.

In the caption, the page wrote, “80s glam meets today’s biggest stars. We reimagined Pakistani actresses as leading ladies of a different era, and honestly, they were built for it.” The post drew criticism from some followers, who questioned the need to use AI for such content.

One user wrote, “we really don’t need to use more AI,” while others questioned whether the celebrities had consented to having their images used to create AI-generated versions.

Despite the criticism, other celebrities also joined the trend. Yasir Hussain shared AI-generated images, including one featuring himself and his wife, Iqra Aziz.

Screengrab: sabooraly/Instagram

Other celebrities including Shahroz Sabswari, Mariyam Nafees, Anoushey Ashraf, Zhalay Sarhadi, Noor Hassan, Nimra Khan, Armeena Khan, and others also joined the trend.

Screengrab: usamakhilji/Instagram

“All you idiots are training CHATGPT with your face so it can reproduce your images better when someone wants to generate your deepfakes. Stop falling for every trend. Stop trusting big tech. Stop feeding your face to machines,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Bilal Maqsood of Strings took a different route, sharing a throwback picture of himself and his group from their Strings days.

"People are using AI to look like they’re from the 80s. 80s people: Hold my photo album", he wrote.

As celebrities continue to embrace viral AI trends, questions around consent, data privacy and the potential misuse of digital likenesses are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.