Our Bureau
Los Angeles
Faking wealth has long been a booming business — from designer knockoffs to rented private jets for Instagram photoshoots. But now, artificial intelligence is making the illusion more personal. A growing number of users are generating photos of themselves living glamorous, leisurely lives — not just to impress others, but as a form of digital escapism and self-manifestation.
According to The Verge, app developer Tim Wijaya, who consulted for OpenAI earlier this year, discovered entire online communities built around this phenomenon. He found several Indonesian Facebook groups — some with up to 30,000 members — dedicated to sharing AI-generated pictures of themselves vacationing in Paris, shopping at Gucci, or posing with Lamborghinis. “Most are middle-low income users from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities making under $400 a month,” Wijaya wrote. “It’s both sad and fascinating that using AI has become a form of escapism, letting people experience lives they’ll probably never live.”
The Verge also reported on Endless Summer, a side project by Laurent Del Rey, a product designer at Meta’s Superintelligence Lab. He describes it as “a social media app for when burnout hits and you need to manifest the soft life you deserve — with fake vacation pics of you.” Users upload a few selfies, and the app generates photorealistic images of them lounging in luxury resorts or dining on exotic beaches.
Dozens of similar “manifestation” apps have emerged on app stores, such as Manifest AI Coach: Dreams Made, Manifestar AI, and ManifestMe. They claim to help users visualize their goals through AI-generated imagery and affirmations. Most, however, fall short — offering only text affirmations and surreal, goddess-like AI art instead of real visualizations.
Endless Summer stands out for actually doing what it promises. The app produced “fictional vacation photos” of me in Tokyo, Rio, and New York. After three free images, though, the fantasy comes at a price — $3.99 for 30 images or $34.99 for 300. For that kind of money, you could almost buy yourself a real getaway — just maybe not the five-star kind.
