How to create AI yearbook pictures with viral Epik app

People are leaning into childhood nostalgia and creating new school yearbook photos thanks to the newest AI-powered social media trend. Epik, a free-to-download photo editing app, offers a 90s-style yearbook photo edit that has gone viral on Instagram and TikTok. 

The trend has become so popular that Epik is currently the top trending free app in the App Store. It’s free to download but you have to pay to generate your own 90s-inspired photos. 

Here’s how to make your own, and how it worked when I created yearbook photos of Todd Haselton, CNBC’s deputy technology editor.

You’ll see the AI Yearbook option after you open the Epik app and a disclaimer that says “AI results may not always be satisfactory.” And some of them aren’t. Several pictures didn’t look like Todd at all.

You’ll choose between two paid tiers based on the app’s wait times: The standard tier costs $5.99 and will generate photos within 24 hours, and the express tier costs $9.99 and will generate photos within two hours. As of Thursday, the standard tier was on sale for $3.99 and express was $5.99. 

Both tiers generate 60 photos using 8-12 photos the user uploads. The photos are separated into categories, like “best dressed” and “most athletic.”

It also says you can’t upload photos of children and that anything that’s uploaded is deleted from the app’s servers after it generates yearbook pictures. Next, I uploaded eight images, including this sample:

Some people are experiencing delayed wait times to use the service, which the app says is due to a “rapid increase in users.” The app is prompting some to try at a later time. I waited about an hour.

Here’s what it generated.