You can use an AI Time Machine to see what you'd look like in different eras throughout history

Image: Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

In a recent TikTok trend that has garnered over 30 million views, people are sharing realistic AI-generated photos of what they would have looked like throughout different time periods in history. You can join in on the fun, too – for free. 

The photos are generated by an "AI Time Machine," created by genealogy company MyHeritage. As of Monday, the company generated 44 million output images, out of which three million were downloaded for sharing, according to MyHeritage. 

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The website takes a number of photos you upload and by using text-to-image technology based on Stable Diffusion, constructs a model that is used to depict a person in a variety of poses and different lighting, according to the site. 

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It then uses the themes on the site to apply the proper conditions to the model to create a hyper-realistic photo of what someone looks like in a certain time period. 

The images can include 20th century staples such as a 1920s flapper, a 1930s Hollywood star, or a 1970s hippie. You can also go way back in time and choose to be depicted as a Viking, Roman, Mayan, world explorer, 16th century royalty, and more.

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