1980s AI photo trend sparks environmental concerns over energy use

A viral social media trend has seen users reimagine their modern selfies as retro portraits from the 1980s using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. The trend has gained significant traction across platforms, with millions participating in creating AI-generated avatars.

However, the widespread adoption of this AI trend has drawn attention to its environmental impact. Each AI image generation requires substantial computational resources and energy consumption, raising concerns about the carbon footprint associated with the viral craze.

Experts have begun questioning the sustainability of large-scale AI image generation trends and their cumulative environmental cost as millions of users engage in creating these avatars simultaneously.