Content creators are using artificial intelligence to re-create lifelike scenes from past centuries, mesmerizing viewers online-but do their creations really help us see into the past?
Jonathan Laramy, 31, from England, runs a TikTok account dedicated to AI content called @impossibleAIcinema. On October 22, he posted a video depicting the hardships of living in poverty in 19th-century London. The clip shows people waking up in poorly insulated homes, working in rough conditions at factories and wandering through dirt-ridden alleyways in rags. The video has garnered more than 3.4 million views, captivating digital audiences with its hauntingly realistic portrayal of a bygone era.
The viral success of Laramy's clips underscores a growing fascination with AI-generated historical content, which many see as a tool to enhance our understanding of history in a novel and engaging way.
"I wanted to expand my reach and broaden out to history in general," Laramy told Newsweek. "My idea was to re-create historical scenes in a realistic but engaging way, ranging from life in ancient Greece to life in the trenches in World War II."
Since Laramy began experimenting with AI in December 2023, the response to his videos has been overwhelming.
"The channel grew to 10,000 followers in a week and 100,000 followers in less than a couple of months," he said.
His recent video about life as a member of the lower class in Victorian London appears to have struck a particular chord. With more than 240,000 likes and 2,900 comments, it demonstrates the public's appetite to connect with the past.
"People felt humbled and emotional after watching it," Laramy said. "Some people even said that this is the only good use of AI they have ever seen."
Laramy is not alone in using AI to explore the past. The new genre of content has sparked intrigue among its mainly Gen Z and millennial viewers.
Another creator, Instagram user @cyberserge, posted a video on October 29 that reimagined Roman emperors' busts as colorized moving heads, complete with animated facial expressions. This AI-powered depiction has been liked more than 165,000 times, drawing a range of comments from stunned viewers.
Newsweek spoke with Alex Strick van Linschoten, a machine learning engineer at ZenML with a Ph.D. in history, about his views on this growing trend and whether such content can aid in our understanding of the past.
"AI technology, particularly recent developments in image and video generation, offers intriguing possibilities for making the past more engaging and interactive," Strick van Linschoten said.
However, he cautioned that these videos should be used as tools for imaginative engagement rather than definitive historical accounts. Though engaging, the videos often provide a limited perspective as the AI platforms being used to create them may favor the dominant narratives available online about a certain time period.
Strick van Linschoten continued: "The most robust historical understanding typically comes from triangulating multiple perspectives. While AI can facilitate multifaceted exploration, current implementations often privilege single narratives.
"Those single-perspective narratives can oversimplify complex historical events that deserve proper, fair examination."
Strick van Linschoten understood that many AI-generated historical videos were created to appeal to social media users and gain popularity online. He suggested that future AI applications in historical education could support multiple perspectives, distinguish between fact and imaginative reconstruction, and complement traditional research methods.
"Imagine an AI system helping users explore what life might have been like for different social groups in a specific historical context, with clear caveats about the speculative nature of such reconstructions and links to primary sources and scholarly research," the engineer said.
As AI continues to evolve, its implementation in historical storytelling should be approached with caution to avoid oversimplification or misrepresentation.
Still, the technology holds significant promise for creating interactive experiences that acknowledge historical complexity and enrich our understanding of the past.
Related Articles