Nigerian Artists Use AI to Show African Elderly People in Cat Walk

Illustration of AI images created by Malik Afegbua. (photo: twitter @africa_tales)

JAKARTA - A Nigerian artist is using artificial intelligence to re-imagine the lives of elderly Africans by displaying life-like images and videos of them walking on cat walks and on beaches.

Malik Afegbua, who is also a filmmaker, said that because many elderly people are marginalized in society, especially in the world of fashion, he began to imagine what they would look like if they became models. Afegbua started posting some of his works on social media and they went viral.

He came up with the idea for the "Elders Series", a catalog of images and videos showing white-haired women and bearded men strutting the runway for a virtual fashion show in Afrocentric clothing, including bows and ornamental sleeves.

"So I wanted to... imagine parents in a place that isn't in a sad room or in an oppressed state," Afegbua told Reuters. "But when I made it I kind of knew something was in there. I was like a dope. I loved what I saw."

Afegbua was not always an artist. He studied business at university but got into film after a friend bought him a camera in 2011.

He said the idea to explore a different world for parents came when his elderly mother fell ill. Using an artificial intelligence app, he started creating content showing the sunny side of old age.