<div><p>You’ve seen the trend on TikTok or Instagram: Your friends, family, and favorite influencers sharing yearbook photos from the ‘90s. Only it’s not really photos of them—it’s an AI-generated set of images.<br></br></p><p>These uncanny-valley yearbook photos have taken the internet by storm, and you can try it out for yourself. While there are likely other apps that offer the service, the one most people seem to be using is EPIK - AI Photo Editor.</p><p>This app didn’t land on the App Store with the express intent to generate AI yearbook photos: It already offered AI photo editing tools for users to remove distracting objects, swap backgrounds, add filters, and more. But it’s the yearbook feature that caused it to blow up. Here’s how you can try it out for yourself.</p><h2 id="h41064"><a id=""></a>How to create your own AI yearbook photo</h2><p>To start, download EPIK - AI Photo Editor on either the <span><a data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epik-ai-photo-editor/id1577705074&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]" href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epik-ai-photo-editor/id1577705074" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">iOS App Store</a></span> on <span><a data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snowcorp.epik&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.snowcorp.epik" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Play Store</a></span>. Open the app, then tap “AI Yearbookâ€ on the main screen. Tap “Continue,â€ then choose “Upload 8–12 selfies.â€ You’ll need to give the app permission to access your camera roll, but for a more secure approach, only give it access to the eight to 12 selfies you want to upload. </p><p>Once you choose your photos, you’ll need to pick your gender, then pick a way to pay. (Unfortunately, this AI Yearbook feature isn’t free.) For $5.99, you can have your yearbook photos back in 24 hours. For $9.99, you can have them in two hours. Whichever option you pick, choose “Create Yearbook Imagesâ€ to start the process.</p><h2 id="h41065"><a id=""></a>Is the ‘90s AI yearbook trend safe?</h2><p>There’s always something a little unsettling about apps like this, and if you’re wary about sharing your selfies with EPIK, I don’t blame you. However, the app itself doesn’t seem to be any worse with your data than the average app. For example, it uses identifiers to track your activity across other apps and websites, which plenty of apps do: If you <span><a data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://lifehacker.com/how-to-hide-from-advertisers-with-ios-14-5s-new-app-tra-1846766232&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]" href="https://lifehacker.com/how-to-hide-from-advertisers-with-ios-14-5s-new-app-tra-1846766232" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">disable tracking</a></span> on your iPhone, that won’t be as much of a problem. It will also store information such as your location if you allow location permissions. </p><p>But of course the big question is about the images of your face itself. <span><a data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/ai-yearbook-app-epik-not-free-social-media-rcna118702&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/ai-yearbook-app-epik-not-free-social-media-rcna118702" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">According to the parent company</a></span>, SNOW Corporation, the EPIK app does not store <em>any</em> personal information from its users, including the selfies used to generate your AI images. However, that doesn’t mean SNOW Corporation doesn’t store your information: There’s a difference.</p><p>In their privacy policy, they do discuss how they use facial recognition to perform certain functions in the app, and that while this technology isn’t used to identify individual faces, it does send this data through third parties and does store it. They’ll delete it once its initial purpose is finished, or within three years.</p><p>Based on all of that, it <em>seems</em> like EPIK and SNOW don’t keep your <em>photos</em>, but it’s possible it will store tracking information, device information, location information, and facial recognition processing. Again, you probably use apps that use your data in the same way. It’s not great, but you’re probably safe to try it out. (Of course, <span><a data-ga="[[&quot;Embedded Url&quot;,&quot;External link&quot;,&quot;https://lifehacker.com/the-ethics-of-making-and-publishing-ai-art-1850688734?rev=1690594912120&quot;,{&quot;metric25&quot;:1}]]" href="https://lifehacker.com/the-ethics-of-making-and-publishing-ai-art-1850688734?rev=1690594912120" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the ethics of these AI image generators</a></span> is another discussion altogether.)</p></div>