Picture this: you’re minding your own business watching videos of deep sea anglerfish and Laneway complaints and with the next scroll you’re suddenly waking up as a mermaid (through an AI generated POV). TikTok’s latest obsession with AI POVs means that you can wake up as a Gladiator in Rome, citizen of Pompeii or royalty in ancient Greece. But it seems like with anything on this app, this trend has taken a weird and dark turn.
It all kicked off innocently enough. People were using AI to create “day in the life” videos as mythical creatures, time travellers, or citizens of long-lost civilisations.
Most of these viral videos come from the account @timetravellerpov, which has amassed millions of views and likes. The videos typically start with you “waking up” in a different time period, then panning around to show your surroundings.
One popular video drops you into 1351 London during the Black Plague. You’re wandering through muddy streets, begging for food, and trying not to catch the deadly disease. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well for you.
While reliving the Black Plague might not be everyone’s cup of tea, the trend took a more wholesome turn with videos like “POV: You wake up as an English kid in the 2000s”. Suddenly, viewers were transported back to a world of Blockbuster visits and PlayStation 2 marathons.
“When I die this is what I want to relive one last time,” one user commented.
Copycat accounts have started popping up and the trend has allowed us all to live our best lives as royalty in Atlantis or goddesses from Mount Olympus (my truest form). Harmless fun, right?
But as with all good things on the internet, it didn’t take long for the trend to go off the rails. Things started to become weird when I came across a “day in the life” video of a student during COVID-19. I thought this would be the worst thing to take me out, but alas I was wrong.
We’ve now reached a point where people are creating POV videos of being a worker in the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, or living through President John F Kennedy‘s assassination. I truly hate it here.
Should I be surprised seeing that the trend picked up traction with a plague POV? Not really. But these AI-generated scenarios are undeniably captivating. They tap into our curiosity about different time periods and our desire to experience things we never could in real life. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap of the dehumanising affects AI can have. Why is it that I was so unsettled by a tragedy I knew (9/11), but was fine watching a tragedy I didn’t (the plague). Both are historical events that are studied by classrooms all over the world through multiple generations. So when does this curiosity cross the line into exploitation? And what role will AI play in this curiousity in the future?
In the end, perhaps the real question isn’t whether we can recreate the past with AI, but whether we should. Not to get too deep about a TikTok trend, but as we scroll through our For You pages, travelling from ancient Rome to Victorian era London with the swipe of a finger, it might be worth taking a moment to reflect on the present and the future we’re creating with each view, share and like. If you’re looking for where the line is, recreating 9/11 is it!
Lead image: TikTok
The post From Mermaids To 9/11: TikTok’s AI POV Trend Has Gone Off The Deep End appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
