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A group of TikTokers used AI to guess what the Kardashian family would look like without surgery.
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The video sparked online hatred of the family, as speculative content in this genre often does.
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One of the creators told Insider that it was never their intention to encourage judgment.
A TikTok video featuring images of the restyled Kardashians without any beauty enhancements exploded, but the negative backlash came as a shock to the creator, who simply wanted to get people more interested in artificial intelligence.
The clip, which has garnered 3.8 million views, was posted by Keith Lee, a 35-year-old content creator from Sydney, Australia, who teamed up with multiple social media platforms to create an entertainment live stream called “vandahoodlive” where the hosts of the show combine their love of technology with pop culture conversations.
On Sept. 17, the live streamers posted a clip from their show to TikTok, showing them using AI software to predict what members of the Kardashian family would look like without cosmetic surgery.
Lee told Insider that he is extremely passionate about technology and artificial intelligence. He thinks the latest developments in how AI is being used, from medical advances to celebrity deepfakes, are “about to get very, very wild,” and the group thought talking about celebrities would be a way to get more viewers interested in artificial intelligence.
“We started playing with some concepts on the show. Simple things first, like seeing what celebrity babies would look like,” he said, adding, “then we came up with the idea of what the Kardashians would look like if they never would go down. the knife. Can we pull something like that off?”
Lee told Insider that the group spent a week researching what surgeries each of the celebrities had publicly declared and running images of them through multiple AI and editing applications — such as DeepFaceLive, Ebsynth and FaceTune — to estimate what they would have looked like without these procedures.
While Lee told Insider that the team made the video purely for “entertainment purposes” and had no intention of offending the Kardashians, he said a handful of commenters responded to the video with “strong opinions and absolutely wanting to tear it down.”
Some comments on the video began speculating that some celebrities have put in more work than others, with some people writing negative comments. Other users, including some who say they work in the skincare industry, used the video to add their own speculation about how many cosmetic surgeries the celebrities have had.
“People tried to use this video to embarrass them,” Lee said, adding, “That was not our intention.”
Lee told Insider that he wants people to know that his team’s AI predictions are “definitely not factual” and were not intended to be used as a basis for people to speculate and express hatred towards the Kardashians.
“Yes, we play with the latest technology, but we’re not doctors. We’re not professionals, and we’re not trying to damage anyone’s image or anything. I think the internet just needs to relax.” he said.
Representatives of the Kardashian family did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Plastic surgery videos often go viral on TikTok, but there are concerns that they violate celebrity privacy
The hashtag #plasticsurgery has been viewed more than 15 billion times on TikTok, and creators — some of whom are medical professionals — have built a large following by commenting on and speculating about cosmetic work involving celebrities, often publicly scrutinized for their appearance.
But the genre is not without criticism. In March, American rapper Doja Cat accused YouTube creator Lorry Hill of making up “lies” about her in a video in which the YouTuber said she believed the rapper had plastic surgery. Hill subsequently removed the video, saying in a written statement on her YouTube channel, “It is never my intention to hurt anyone.”
Dr. Anthony Youn, a practicing plastic surgeon in Detroit who went viral in May for speculating about what cosmetic surgeries he thinks Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have had before, told Insider that he “is totally against judging anyone for plastic surgery who they have undergone,” although such videos often spark online hatred and vitriol against the subjects involved.
Youn also said he believes that by exposing cosmetic surgery he can help people avoid unrealistic standards of beauty. “As a society, we’ve always been interested in whether celebrities get plastic surgery,” he said. “We’re led to believe they look as good as they do naturally, so it’s refreshing to find out that maybe they’re not so natural after all.”
Dr. Muneeb Shah, a dermatologist, told Insider last year that while it can be fun to speculate, people should be careful about jumping to conclusions about a celebrity’s personal life. “It is up to us to practice always being respectful and compassionate to all people and all bodies.”
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.
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