AI 80s photo trend: police call it a trap, and what uploading your face risks

If your timeline is full of friends restyled as 1980s film stars, that is the AI 80s photo trend: you upload a selfie to a chatbot, it returns you in soft focus with period hair, grain and a studio backdrop. Pakistani celebrities pushed it hard through September, among them Mahira Khan, Ayeza Khan, Sanam Saeed, Mawra Hocane, Zara Noor Abbas, Anoushey Ashraf, Zhalay Sarhadi, Saboor Aly and Yasir Hussain.

On 22 September, Delhi Police issued a public alert about it. Their wording was blunt: "Looks like nostalgia but it could be a trap. Your images can be misused for fake profiles, blackmail or cyber fraud."

What the alert actually says to do

The advice was three things, and none of it requires you to quit the trend:

• Check the privacy and data control settings of the tool before you upload anything.
• Avoid images with sensitive detail in the background.
• Use only trusted AI services, and do not click random links offering a viral filter.

That last point is the one that catches most people. The trend spreads faster than the official apps do, and the copycat sites and "free 80s filter" links that appear alongside it are where the real losses happen.

The Pakistani objection

Digital rights campaigner Usama Khilji made the same argument in sharper terms when the trend took hold here, warning that people are handing over clean, well-lit, front-facing portraits of themselves: "All you idiots are training CHATGPT with your face so it can reproduce your images better when someone wants to generate your deepfakes."

Whether a given company trains on your uploads depends on its policy and your settings, and the major tools do let you turn training off. The risk that does not depend on any policy is the copycat site: an upload there is simply a face you have given to a stranger.

Why a face is worth stealing here

Three specific uses, all of which already happen in Pakistan.

Fake profiles. A real face with a real name makes a convincing fraudulent account, which is then used to approach that person's own contacts for money.

Blackmail. A clear portrait is the raw material for manipulated images, and the demand that follows is for payment to stop circulation.

Account and identity fraud. Selfie checks are used for onboarding by banking apps and wallets. A high quality portrait raises the value of everything else a fraudster may already hold about you.

That last one connects to a check worth doing anyway. Connections registered against your CNIC without your knowledge are a standing problem here, and our guide on how to see the SIMs registered on your CNIC shows the 668 SMS route and what it does and does not tell you.

If you want to do the trend anyway

• Use the official app or website of a tool you already have an account with. Do not go through a link someone forwarded.
• Turn off model training in the tool's data controls before you upload.
• Upload a plain head and shoulders photo. Nothing with your CNIC, a bank card, a house number, a number plate, an office pass or a child in frame.
• Do not upload photos of other people, including your children, without asking them.
• Delete the chat afterwards. It does not undo everything, but it reduces what sits in an account you may stop watching.

If your face is already being misused

Cybercrime complaints in Pakistan go to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, which handles offences under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, including fake profiles and image-based blackmail. Report it there rather than only reporting the account to the platform, and keep screenshots, profile links and dates before you block anyone, because that is the evidence the complaint runs on.