"There has been a recent deluge of generative AI videos featuring uncannily fresh-faced teens waxing nostalgic about how much better the world was during the '80s and '90s. As the AI youths smize and show off their period-specific haircuts, the clips cut to dreamlike footage of sun-drenched cul-de-sacs and vintage cars while songs like "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and tracks inspired by the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack play in the background."
"On one level, this content appeals to people's fascination with the past - especially younger viewers whose lack of firsthand experience with these eras can make it easier to overlook the anachronistic details generative AI models are prone to including in their video output. But these videos are also conjuring an idealized vision of the past where everyone is beautiful, most people are white, and they all have inexplicable knowledge about how stressful life in 2025 is going to be."
Video generators like Sora rely on a monoculture that no longer exists and produce creations that often feel shallow and low-quality. A surge of generative AI videos features idealized, fresh-faced teens nostalgically praising the '80s and '90s alongside sunlit suburban scenes, vintage cars, and retro soundtracks. The content appeals to younger viewers and leverages fascination with the past, while lack of firsthand experience can mask anachronistic errors in the output. The videos present a homogenized, predominantly white aesthetic and grant characters implausible, contemporary knowledge. The resulting nostalgia becomes a sanitized, reactionary fantasy detached from historical complexity.
Read at The Verge
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