Nigerian artist and filmmaker, Malik Afegbua, has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) for his latest works and people are loving it.

As first reported by the BBC, Afegbua posted a series of works to Instagram under the title “Fashion show for the seniors.” The images represent exactly that, elderly subjects walking down fashion runways in a variety of unique and stylish designs.

@slickcityceo
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Chilling with the elders#ai #westandontheshouldersofourancestors pic.twitter.com/WfCG3lfYR0

— African Heritage City (@Heritagecity) January 4, 2023

The work even garnered a comment from Ruth Carter, the Oscar-winning costume designer behind the Black Panther films. Others commenting asked where and when the fashion show happened — unaware that the works were created using AI and that the subjects were not real people.

In an interview with the BBC, Afegbua shared how he had gone from being a business-school graduate to pivoting into the arts and a creative career, stating that “someone gifted me a camera and that’s where it took off.”

The creative reportedly became a filmmaker, producing commercials, documentary films, and virtual reality exhibitions — now, he is embracing and implementing AI into his works.

He shared that his latest fashion series was a way to challenge the “marginalization” of the elderly in modern society and challenge the perceptions that surround aging.

Speaking on his medium, the artist shared that “artificial intelligence learns from us and learns from the World Wide Web. I try to learn from it as well. I try to learn how to talk to it, how to communicate better to get exact results from it.”

He also believes that the technology is not simply a trend and will not be fading out of the public eye any time soon — especially as its algorithms and engines continue to advance.

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