Russians using AI to recreate dead soldiers for up to $133 an image, paint over horrors of war

Russian AI creators are charging grieving families up to $133 to generate images of dead soldiers, portraying them as heroes and erasing the death and destruction happening in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a boom in the seedy market looking to capitalize on the death of more than 325,000 Moscow troops, with content creators charging the families of slain soldiers to create ghoulish AI, military-themed photos and videos for funeral services, the BBC reported.

The crude images show recreations of the soldiers smiling and waving at their loved ones, but the low-effort venture can also result in grotesque images of soldiers missing limbs or appearing with distorted faces.

The images also often portray the soldiers as heaven-bound on staircases adorned with Russian flags, or as ghosts in the sky who hug their families in cheap recreations before becoming angels.

Others recreate missing soldiers and show them content in an idyllic vision of the frontlines — a far cry from the trenches carved out in war-torn Ukraine.

One such image, created by online user Katya Jin, was even played in a Moscow digital billboard depicting a slain soldier coming back to his wife with a bouquet of flowers, according to the BBC.

The scheme has received loud backlash online. Critics have accused the creators who charge for such AI content of being grifters profiting off grief.

An AI-creator, identified as Ulyana Lebed, touted that she earns about $2,000 to $2,600 a month making these pictures and videos, which is about twice as much as the average Russian wage.

One person online warned Lebed that karma could soon come for her, given that her husband is a Russian servicemember.

“Be careful that loss doesn’t come knocking at your door. Some subjects should not be touched — but you just wanted to make money,” the user wrote in one of Lebed’s promotional posts.

The images are also sparking outrage in Ukraine over the hero worship of the very men invading their land and carrying out Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged war crimes.

“You should be ashamed to show your ‘heroes’ who went to earn blood money by killing our children,” one Ukrainian wrote on one of the posts advertising the industry.