1980s AI photo trend: 5 ChatGPT prompts to turn your photos into authentic 80s images

In the latest viral ChatGPT trend, individuals are uploading their photographs to the AI chatbot to generate retro 1980s-style images. While the trend captures public attention, privacy concerns arise regarding the safety of uploading personal photos, especially those containing faces, to AI platforms. Cybersecurity and privacy experts have previously warned users about the risks of sharing personal information with AI systems, as these platforms often collect and analyze the data for training purposes, with unclear long-term uses.

Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, expressed concerns about what happens after users upload photographs and personal details to a chatbot like ChatGPT. Once photos and personal information are uploaded, the platform stores the data and uses it to train the AI models, with uncertain long-term implications. Matt Conlon, CEO and co-founder at security firm Cytidel, warned that users are actively feeding detailed personal information into generative models to enhance the output.

Conlon emphasized that this behavior raises serious data privacy concerns and could potentially increase the risk of identity theft in the future.

Another issue highlighted in previous reports is the potential for users to normalize the sharing of personal information with AI tools, diminishing their awareness of how that data might be used or retained. Chris Linnell, associate director of data privacy at Bridewell, cautioned that the personalized appearance of AI-generated images does not necessarily mean the chatbot independently gathered information about the person. Instead, the quality of the output is often a result of the richness of data users provide.

Moreover, once an image is posted publicly, there is the risk of the content being copied, reposted, or scraped beyond the original context and control. This further extends the privacy concerns associated with the original upload. Chris Linnell also pointed out that the privacy question does not end with the original upload, as the image may be shared on various platforms, leading to additional exposure.

The Ghibli-style image trend, which went viral in April of the previous year, also raised concerns about users voluntarily uploading personal photographs to OpenAI's chatbot. Users were primarily focused on creating stylized versions of themselves, unaware that they were potentially providing OpenAI with access to thousands of voluntarily submitted images, including facial data.

Luiza Jarovsky, co-founder of the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, discussed the distinction between voluntarily submitted images and images scraped from the internet, noting that OpenAI's privacy policy states that the company collects personal data input by users to train its AI models when users have not opted out.

When asked directly, ChatGPT acknowledged privacy considerations regarding uploading personal photographs to create an 1980s-style picture. However, the chatbot suggested that users should only upload photos they are comfortable sharing with the service, avoid photos containing other people or sensitive details, and refrain from including personally identifiable information in the background.