--- title: "Everyone Hates That “Hideous” AI Video Of Celebs Hugging Their Younger Selves" description: "Digital Getdown For some reason, an artist has taken his Photoshopped images of celebrities hanging out with their younger selves and given them the AI treatment — and the results are positively nightmarish. The original work in question was created by Dutch artist Ard Gelinck, a so-called \"Photoshop expert\" whose manipulated images of celebs like […]" date: "2024-07-20" modified: "2024-07-20" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-video-celebrity-younger-selves" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "celebrities" - "generative ai" - "the digest" - "video generator" --- # Everyone Hates That “Hideous” AI Video Of Celebs Hugging Their Younger Selves ![A viral AI-generated clip of celebrities hugging their younger selves has really squicked out people online.]() *\Image: Ard Gelinck\* ## Digital Getdown For some reason, an artist has taken images of celebrities hanging out with their younger selves and given them the AI treatment — and the results are positively nightmarish. The original work in question was created by Dutch artist Ard Gelinck, whose manipulated images of celebs like Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, and Tom Hanks canoodling with their younger selves [went mildly viral in 2021]() because, well, they actually looked pretty good. Three short years later, however, the digital art landscape looks a lot different. Accordingly, he set AI loose on the works. And the results are so uncanny, even the [artist admitted in an Instagram post]() that they're "f\*cking scary" https://www.twitter.com/ArdGelinck/status/1813501031877050519 ## Cursed While Gelinck seems to think his creation is the good kind of scary, others find it to be creepy in the worst way. In one post resharing one of the videos, which ranges from a strange-looking Emma Watson hugging herself as Harry Potter's Hermione Granger to a grown-up Smith posing with himself in the "Fresh Prince" era, an X-formerly-Twitter user [joked that it might be]() "the most cursed thing on the internet." Another user was even more scathing with their criticism. "Hey AI what would it look like if a bunch of celebrities were in love with their younger selves?" [the user quipped](), in the [style of an AI prompt](). "Make it really awkward and creepy." In yet another post, a [user posted a screenshot]() from the "hideous" clip that, unlike the other celebrity older-younger pairs, featured three Michael Jacksons instead of two — one in his later years prior to his death in 2009, one at the height of his pop career, and another of him as a child in the Jackson Five. "This one stood out for some reason," the user noted. Even with recent years' leaps and bounds in sophistication, these sorts of outputs are still so uncanny that they even seem to freak out the people creating them — a certain indictment of the reality of generative AI as it stands today. **More on AI creepiness:** [*New Camera Inside Cars Detects If You've Been Drinking*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()