How to do the AI yearbook photo trend: viral Epik app creates 90s-style school photos for TikTok,
“The app has seen a significant spike with the release of the ‘AI Yearbook’ feature,” says a spokeswoman for Snow, the parent company of Epik. “We have witnessed a 30-fold increase in usage since its launch.”
AI Yearbook works by inviting users to upload eight to 12 photos of themselves onto Epik. The app 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 are cheerleaders, basketball players and beauty queens.
There are two options for payment: US$5.99 and US$9.99. The cheaper, standard option means a user must wait 24 hours before getting their generated photos back, while the express option delivers them in two hours.
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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 a stir online.
“This yearbook trend is really ‘epic’,” one user wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), while another wrote, “These AI yearbook photos are silly and unrealistic.”
Popular 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 are some of the celebrities, influencers and moguls that have jumped on the trend and shared their results online.
Because Epik has more global users than it does Korean ones, the Snow spokeswoman says AI Yearbook targets its wider audience.
“I think Western users feel nostalgic about retaking [their] yearbook photos. For Asians who are familiar with the yearbook concept but have not experienced such a thing, [they] can have fun with the app and ask themselves, ‘What if I was featured in a ’90s yearbook?’” she explains.
Despite Epik’s soaring popularity, some critics have raised concerns over the app’s potential user privacy and data security problems because of 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, adding that such photos violate current guidelines prohibiting the use of morphed images.
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