AI Reveals What Dead Musicians Would Look Like If Alive Today

Photographer and lawyer Alper Yesiltas has used AI technology to create portraits of famous dead musicians that show what they would look like if they were still alive today. 

Yesiltas has created photo-realistic portraits of Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Tupac, and Elvis Presley. The artist also provided updated portraits of late Aussie actor Heath Ledger and martial arts icon Bruce Lee. 

Each of the stunning AI-generated portraits showcases the impact that ageing may have had on the appearance of these icons of stage and screen, had they lived to see old age. 

Freddie Mercury

Writing about the project, Yesiltas offers "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. 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.” 

Michael Jackson

Yesiltas used AI software Remini as well as a selection of image editing programs to create the portraits. 

Kurt Cobain

The full collection of Yesiltas creations can be viewed here.

The Cobain image makes for an interesting combination when paired with the AI-generated Nirvana song from the Canadian non-profit Over The Bridge, Drowned in the Sun which was crafted using the open-source Python library powered by TensorFlow, last year.

In other recent AI-related news, virtual rapper, FN Meka has been dropped by Capitol Records. In a statement to Rolling Stone, a Capitol Music Group representative confirmed the dropping. 

"MG has severed ties with the FN Meka project, effective immediately. We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it.  We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of days—your input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project." 

The decision to drop FN Meka comes after news of his signing by Capitol Records triggered a significant backlash from the hip-hop community, with FN Meka's overly exaggerated African-American tropes angering many people.