The AI caricature trend grew fast, from a curiosity to being everywhere, from avatars to profile pictures and stylised portraits spun up in seconds. I was one of the millions sucked into 'having a bit of fun', but once the novelty wears off, something more uncomfortable starts to surface.
These AI tools aren't simply making images; they're absorbing vast amounts of visual data to do it. Art styles, techniques, faces, and proportions were all learned from work created by real people, often without their knowledge. (Read my article on the issues with AI art.) That’s where the unease starts to creep in, because the process is invisible. You upload a photo, press a button, and never really see what’s happening behind the curtain.
I alluded to the issue in my article from Monday, 'This viral AI caricature trend is everywhere', where I mentioned the impact of AI on creative job losses and the creeping use of our data, but we humans are idiots: put a funny picture in front of us and we forget. Monday's article was a bit of a finger-in-the-wind moment, to see where we were and how far we've come with AI 'art'.
Our recent poll in Monday's story reflects that uneasy balance. While 40% of readers say they’re not interested in using AI creatively, the majority are already engaging with it in some form. 28% are actively using AI creatively, 18% are curious but hesitant, and 15% are using it for personal projects. Stack those numbers together, and the picture sharpens: we’ve already crossed the line, AI isn’t a fringe experiment anymore, it’s part of everyday creative life.
That doesn’t mean everyone’s comfortable with it. For many artists, the concern isn’t whether AI images look good. It’s about what they replace. Illustration, concept art, character design, and fields built on years of skill and personal style are now being squeezed by tools that promise instant results at minimal cost.
What makes this moment especially tricky is how personal it’s become. AI caricatures don’t feel like corporate automation. They feel harmless. Fun. A private experiment. But scale matters, and millions of small, seemingly personal uses still shape expectations, normalise shortcuts, and reinforce systems built on borrowed labour.
And there's a deeper issue still, one of fraud and data skimming, as Tomas Stamulis, Surfshark Chief Security Officer, reveals in his comment: "I see a creepy trend where people tend to use AI as if there can’t be any negative consequences later. It is unbelievable that some people get excited about AI knowing the smallest details about them, their activities, and their personal lives. Also, when sharing those viral posts online, users leave hashtags, which makes it even easier for scammers to find them. I really hope this recent trend will wake people up. If a fraud or scam occurs, all the details we see in a shiny caricature can be used to commit crimes."
Most users have no clear idea where training data comes from, whose work was included, or how closely an output might echo a real artist’s style. That lack of transparency is part of why the technology feels unsettling, because it operates quietly behind the scenes. On our Facebook, Judit Molnár was clear about the caricature trend, stating, "Data farming. That’s all you need to know."
None of this is an argument for slamming the brakes on the use of AI; the 'tools' are here, and they’re not going away. The poll makes that obvious, but widespread use doesn’t absolve us of responsibility. If anything, it increases it and means we need to be more aware.
Being wary doesn’t mean being anti-technology. It means asking harder questions about authorship, value, and fairness, especially in creative industries that have always relied on human labour and individuality. The caricature trend is a mirror of where we are now: excited, conflicted, blinded by ease, and already more involved than we might like to admit.
