“As If Nothing Happened”: I Used Artificial Intelligence To See How Some Celebrities Would Look Today If They Were Alive (10 Pics)
I am Alper Yesiltas, a lawyer and photographer living in Istanbul, Turkey. I've been imagining scenes and capturing memories for about 19 years now. During that time, some of my photos have been edited worldwide in books, magazines, exhibitions, and websites and were awarded in several photo contests.
I would like to share with you the first collection of images of my AI-based project called "As if nothing happened". Behind this project lies the question of "how would people look photo-realistically if some great events had not happened to them". I look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
More info: Instagram | rarible.com | twitter.com
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Freddie Mercury
I wish he hadn't got that disease.
Especially with his voice still alive in my head
Load More Replies...That f*****g disease stole too many. I've had more than one student tell me that Gen X/Boomers are "homophobic" because there aren't nearly as many queer people from older generations than there are now. No, sweeties, it's because a huge percentage of our queer folk died of AIDS in the 80s and 90s. Thanks, Reagan and Conservative Christians!
If AIDS was God's punishment for sinners, then Lesbians are the Chosen People. They have lowest rate of infection.
Load More Replies...He was such a handsome talented man. He and Prince have been such a loss. 😢
I would sit a listen to this guys stories. He looks like that awesome Grandpa we all want but didnt deserve. RIP Legend!
Wayne Co citizen here👍 Freddie here looks a little too straight laced but it’s no less the sophisticate Freddie.😊💖
Load More Replies...Grandfatherly, but you know he's still a kickass rocker on the side. Maybe he's just tearing the roof off his local pub on weekends, but he'd still have a foot in the biz. Freddie's such an agonizing loss even after more than 30(!) years.
With the development of AI technology, I've been excited for a while, thinking that "anything imaginable can be shown in reality". When I started tinkering with technology, I saw what I could do and thought about what would make me the happiest. I wanted to see some of the people I missed again in front of me and that's how this project emerged.
Heath Ledger
I wish he hadn't been affected by the exhaustion of his role.
This was one celebrity OD death that shocked me. I honestly did not know he struggled with SAD.
Me too @GoGoPDX. It was such a surreal day. My ex and I had just watched A Knights Tale the night before. The brightest stars shine so bright but so short. RIP my guy.
Load More Replies...This one freaks me out. It looks so real. Like he blessed us with this picture letting us know he's ok now and is happy.
Agree- this one seems too mature for the projected age of early 40’s
Load More Replies...He looks like he got some Tom Hanks mixed into his genes there.
I thought Art Garfunkel... but how Garfunkel looked in his 20s. 😜
Load More Replies...You only changed his hair, his face is just the same as when he played the Joker.
People really need to watch the documentary about him which featured footage he took most of his adult life.The accounts from his friends and family showed he was a person who could never sit still. He always had trouble getting to sleep long before he The Dark Knight. It’s always something that worried them about him.
Janis Joplin
I wish she hadn't sought the inspiration she needed elsewhere.
Take another little piece of my heart, now baby. You know you got it.
I've been blessed to have a few people in my life that fully embodied Janis' soul. Only just realized how much they looked almost exactly like this. Fantastic. The ancient wisdom in those eyes.
The hardest part of the creative process for me is making the image feel "real" to me. The moment I like the most is when I think the image in front of me looks very realistic as if it was taken by a photographer.
I am using various software programs. The time it takes for me to create one fully finished image varies, but I would say it takes a while for an image to feel "real" to me.
Michael Jackson
I wish he hadn't faced vitiligo.
I absolutely love seeing this. Michael was naturally super handsome and it would've been wonderful to see him like this
Unfortunately, after all the plastic surgery, specifically on his nose, he never would have looked like this. But it would've been great if he had.
Load More Replies...You mean if he hadn’t ruined his face with all those ridiculous surgeries. If he’d just left his face alone, look how handsome he would have been!! He could have shown the world that vitiligo is beautiful, instead of destroying himself. So sad
Agreed. Vitiligo was not the problem. Makeup isn’t what killed him…
Load More Replies...It would have been beautiful if he actually could have come close to looking like this, sigh he chiseled away so much of his natural beauty and became a different person.
Amazing. It's sad he felt he had to do all those surgeries. This is a beautiful pic
Listen I can understand wanting MJ to have been more confident in his appearance, but Vitiligo is not something to be wished away. It’s just a skin pattern. There’s no reason for you to feel bad for him because he had vitiligo. Vitiligo is beautiful, and pity like this, treating it like some sort of illness, is not the way to normalize differences
No pity from me on the vitiligo. He should’ve worn it w pride.❤️💜
Load More Replies...Yall I'm seeing a lot of these comments saying he died from his vitiligo- that's not true.. he wasn't able to sleep at night so he would take anesthesia I believe so he could sleep. Well the doctor who gave it to him was supposed to stay in the room with him until he fell asleep, but the doctor went into the other room (also gave Mr. Jackson too much of the medication) . Michael could've been saved if he was watched and taken care of properly. Hope this informed you on the true passing of this amazing man.
Ironically, he probably would have died anyway due to lack of rem sleep. Propofol doesn't let the user experience ren sleep. Complications from that would have been fatal, even though he probably woke up feeling like he had a good night's sleep. Another way his doctor let him down. Fatally.
Load More Replies...My mom has vitiligo and she is beautiful. Like a porcelain doll. And she has no strange, surgery fetishes
Kurt Cobain
I wish he had decided to stay.
Wow!! I always think of Kurt as older than me. I was 14 and a HUGE Nirvana fan when he died. It always breaks my heart when I realize that he was only and will forever be 27! Still so young and so much life ahead of him. This picture really gets me right in the heart!
Yeah the same for me. I was also 14 and hugh fan.
Load More Replies...wow he looks so old, I think he is forever immortalised in his youth for everyone x
I wasnt a fan of grunge back in the day. I do really appreciate Nirvana now. But this is so surreal.
He's not really dead !he's hangin out with Jim Morrison hendrix, Stanley and the rest of the beautiful souls in another realm !if you listen real quietly you'll hear them jammin in the wind!!!RIP Pisces Brother
WOW - that is the spitting image (where did we get the phrase?) of my neighbor, Bill.
There are 10 images so far in this project, I want to extend it but I want to do it in a selective way, so the process is a little bit slow for me. For future projects, there are various things I imagine about real life using AI technology. Like "Life in 2050" and "Alternate Museum".
Jimi Hendrix
I wish he hadn't sought the inspiration he needed elsewhere.
I see this and can picture him in retirement jammin out on a stoop teaching the younger generations how to shred.
Couldn't you imagine him as a grandpop? He'd def be the coolest with the best stories
Can you add one w Hendrix smiling? He looks so sad and beat down here.
I feel like he's giving off Liberal Arts College Philosophy Professor vibes.
John Lennon
I wish he hadn't been in New York that day.
Living for today? Kinda selfish and materialistic, honestly.
Load More Replies...Jimi, Janis, and John Lennon are proof time travel will never be invented D';
I feel this is a much more apropo picture of how John would’ve looked old. Great aging.
Bruce Lee
I wish he hadn't taken that painkiller that day.
Rick the Dragon Steamboats twin. (80's WWE/WWF). But i still wouldnt mess with Mr Lee. Nope.
You're very good at this! You captured those smiling eyes that Bruce had! ✌& ❤
I love his talent! The LP Man movies, are about the Master that taught him everything he Knew.
His son, Brandon, was shot accidentally during production of The Crow.
Load More Replies...Elvis Presley
I wish he decided to live a life where he paid more attention to the health of his heart.
So his hair would have turned white but otherwise, he would have looked younger (and thinner) than he did in the last 5 years of his life? Okay. Who am I to argue with CGI?
I thinks it more like what he WOULD have looked like if he took care of himself better and loved a longer and healthier life.
Load More Replies...too much drugs, also trying to live like he was still a 20 y.o. when he was 40.... it's okay to get older folks, don't take drugs so you can still act young... age gracefully & have fun on the way... spoiler alert: the recent Elvis movie was a complete bummer & downer at the ending... Elvis did not have to die so soon, miss him...
If you watched the movie, then you'll know they were shovelling pills into him to keep him performing, he was drinking and overeating because of depression, and in the end, like Michael Jackson, all of that dangerous mix finished him off.
Load More Replies...Let's not forget he's also a pedophile. Whoever is running this AI really seems to like ignoring pedophiles.
He died of a aortic aneurysm in his stomach caused by constipation for all the pain killers he was given. I wish someone had given him some castor oil. Completely unnecessary.
2pac
I wish he hadn't been involved in that event that would cause him to face the mafia.
Interesting that the OP knows who killed him, since law enforcement does not. 🤦♀️
It's common knowledge that Orlando Anderson shot him in retaliation for the beatdown at the casino earlier that evening. Him and his uncle have confessed!
Load More Replies...Big 2pac fan & I don't like this AI photo of him for whatever reason it sits wrong with me!
For some reason it looks like Tupac blended with Steve Harvey
Load More Replies...Kinda looks like Montel Williams (US talk show host circa 80-90's). But being Pac I wouldnt get on his bad side. Once a G always a G
Omg you are so right, he does look like Montel Williams with a bit of weight gain.
Load More Replies...This is horrible. It looks like a 65 or 70 year old man. Pac would only be 50 or so if he were still alive. I seriously doubt he would look anything like this.
OP did Tupac dirty. He was handsome & still would look basically the same with a few wrinkles, like Snoop does today - not like a cross between current James Earl Jones & Uncle Ruckus.
I wish Phil Hartman was here. I wish he hadn't been as kind as he was to someone so undeserving. You are extremely talented.
Losing Phil was a shock to so many. I can't begin to imagine the projects he might've been involved with or the people he would've worked with if things had been different.
Load More Replies...Thinking of what the world would be like if we still had Karen Carpenter, Otis Redding, Buddy & Ritchie & JP, Ian Curtis, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, and Selena, too. And 2016 was a horror show anyway, and there are too many losses, but oh, if we still had Bowie, Prince, and Carrie Fisher, the world might be slightly better.
let me guess... Mickael Jackson - John Lennon (Christopher Lee vibes :) ) - Freedy Mercury - Madonna - 2 Pac ? - Bruce Lee - Janis Joplin - Jimi Hendricks. very good work, very realistic.
Thank you so much, all correct. Actually John Lennon is my favourite so far, I loved that you found it similar to Christopher Lee, one of my favourite actors.
Load More Replies...not in the first version of the article, it was funnier :)
Load More Replies...I know OP only did music idols, but would love to see Princess Diana, Selena Quintanilla, Chadwick Boseman, Amy Winehouse... Heck even Bowie and Alan Rickman in their 90s
I only recognise one I'm guessing is Michael Jackson. Sorry without knowing their names I'm really bad at guessing lol x
This is interesting because from this projects reality perspective, the person with the most different appearance is him :)
Load More Replies...Love the JL and FM but the hubs thinks Bruce Lee looks like Jimmy Page. Great work!
I’m not big on AI, but these look really good! The aging looks really natural and they all still resemble themselves. I admit I don’t know who the fourth person is, though she looks really familiar.
Thank you so much, she's Madonna :)
Load More Replies...I wish Whitney Houston had understood how special she was. Also that none of these had ever taken drugs.
I wish Phil Hartman was here. I wish he hadn't been as kind as he was to someone so undeserving. You are extremely talented.
Losing Phil was a shock to so many. I can't begin to imagine the projects he might've been involved with or the people he would've worked with if things had been different.
Load More Replies...Thinking of what the world would be like if we still had Karen Carpenter, Otis Redding, Buddy & Ritchie & JP, Ian Curtis, Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison, and Selena, too. And 2016 was a horror show anyway, and there are too many losses, but oh, if we still had Bowie, Prince, and Carrie Fisher, the world might be slightly better.
let me guess... Mickael Jackson - John Lennon (Christopher Lee vibes :) ) - Freedy Mercury - Madonna - 2 Pac ? - Bruce Lee - Janis Joplin - Jimi Hendricks. very good work, very realistic.
Thank you so much, all correct. Actually John Lennon is my favourite so far, I loved that you found it similar to Christopher Lee, one of my favourite actors.
Load More Replies...not in the first version of the article, it was funnier :)
Load More Replies...I know OP only did music idols, but would love to see Princess Diana, Selena Quintanilla, Chadwick Boseman, Amy Winehouse... Heck even Bowie and Alan Rickman in their 90s
I only recognise one I'm guessing is Michael Jackson. Sorry without knowing their names I'm really bad at guessing lol x
This is interesting because from this projects reality perspective, the person with the most different appearance is him :)
Load More Replies...Love the JL and FM but the hubs thinks Bruce Lee looks like Jimmy Page. Great work!
I’m not big on AI, but these look really good! The aging looks really natural and they all still resemble themselves. I admit I don’t know who the fourth person is, though she looks really familiar.
Thank you so much, she's Madonna :)
Load More Replies...I wish Whitney Houston had understood how special she was. Also that none of these had ever taken drugs.
