Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back in time? How it looked during major historical events? The plague, WWII, and even what it’s like to be a gladiator? Now you can with AI. The new TikTok trend using AI to show the point of view of someone in another time period feels like time travel.
Paintings and drawings from history class are not enough to understand what it would really be like in a certain era. There is something about being able to see the movements of people, villages, side streets, etc. makes it more immersive.
Although the videos may not be one hundred percent historically accurate and some people may have six fingers or disappear out of nowhere, it is easy to get an understanding of what life would have been like. There are many videos with very random or bizarre POVs. Some I have seen recently are: “POV: waking up as a coal miner in 1890”, “POV: waking up as a civilian in Pompeii” and “POV: waking up as an angel in Heaven”. The trend is slowly becoming a meme. Some are filming videos from their POV that imitate just what the AI videos are like but are labeled “POV: you’re a college girl having to take her makeup off after a long night” or other funny relatable versions of the trend.
I have liked seeing the AI videos because I have always been fascinated by history and what the world was like in the past. When I visit historical streets, houses, or cities, I always try to imagine people in that era existing in these places. Artificial intelligence has made it easier for me to see this.