Ahsan Mohsin Ikram tapped into the strangeness of artificial intelligence, using it to stage the kind of birthday gathering most of us could never dream of (we actually wouldn’t want to).
Taking to Instagram stories on Tuesday, the actor shared a set of AI-generated photos that showed him hanging out with a controversial mix of world leaders and Hollywood icons — from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to Britney Spears, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Tom Cruise and John Cena.
Ikram paired each bizarre mashup with tongue-in-cheek captions. Standing alongside Trump and Putin, he wrote, “Some friends came to wish me on my birthday.”
With Spears, he cracked, “Hit me baby one more time also came to see me.” He added a nod to the Kardashian-Jenner sisters with, “Kylie and Kim stole the show, though.”
A shot with Tom Cruise was paired with the line, “Someone showed up a little late.”
John Cena’s infamous catchphrase inspired the quip, “John Cena said you can’t see me, but I could see him, and so can you.”
Perhaps the funniest post featured Trump, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping jumping in the air behind him, captioned, “Pakistanis after signing Saudi defence agreement.”
But beyond the humour, Ikram used the moment to make a point. In a separate story, he wrote, “AI is funny but can be dangerous too. These satire posts were there to make all of you aware that not everything you see on the internet is true, and one should verify what is the truth and what is fake.”
Lately, Instagram feeds have been flooded with similar experiments — from celebrities and influencers sharing AI-generated pictures of their younger selves to men digitally inserting themselves next to stars like Dua Lipa. While it’s all fun and games and people are increasingly familiar with the ‘miracles’ of AI, it’s also a little weird and, in some ways, unethical. After all, the public figures being used in these images never consented to being AI-generated for jokes. Add to that the broader concern that the unnecessary use of AI comes with a hidden cost — its environmental impact — something most users rarely stop to consider.
By turning his own feed into an AI experiment, Ikram may have given fans both a laugh and a reminder that in a world flooded with synthetic images, a little scepticism goes a long way. And while his point about verifying information stands, here’s hoping the trend of using AI for pure randomness finds a graceful exit sooner rather than later.