The 7-kilo baby who stunned the world in 1983: here’s how he looks today at 40… See more
It’s unusual.
It has a precise number.
It involves a baby.
It happened decades ago.
And it leaves viewers with an unanswered question.
What does he look like now?
That final question is especially powerful because it creates curiosity.
People want closure.
They want to see the transformation.
A tiny newborn becomes a child.
The child becomes a teenager.
The teenager becomes an adult.
And eventually, the internet promises, we can see the person today.
This structure is perfect for viral content.
Unfortunately, it also creates enormous opportunities for misinformation.
Enter the AI-Generated Baby
Modern artificial intelligence has made it remarkably easy to create convincing-looking photographs.
Someone can generate an image of a newborn that appears impossibly large.
They can place that baby beside a nurse.
They can create a hospital room.
They can make the child’s parents appear shocked.
They can even generate a supposed adult version decades later.
To an unsuspecting viewer, the image may look like an authentic historical photograph.
But it may never have existed.
The photograph can be fictional even when the underlying story is true.
That distinction is crucial.
Kevin Clark’s extraordinary birth is a real historical event.
That does not mean every image accompanying a social-media post about him is authentic.