Atatürk was brought to life with artificial intelligence in Alanya: 9.5 million views, setting a record
In Alanya, chef Yunus Emre Yılmaz and his wife, medical secretary Elif Selen Yılmaz, used artificial intelligence applications to create a video based on images of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The video, featuring Atatürk in a suit, watching the Istanbul skyline from a high point, and then walking along the beach, reached millions of views after being shared on social media. With 9.5 million views, the video went viral and received numerous comments and likes, including from celebrities.
I COULDN’T REMAIN INDIFFERENT
Elif Selen Yılmaz and Yunus Emre Yılmaz shared with Demirören News Agency how artificial intelligence changed their lives and about the video of Atatürk that garnered over 9 million views. Elif Selen Yılmaz said, "We met through an AI-generated image of Atatürk that Emre designed. I wasn’t expecting to see something like that. When I saw it, I couldn’t remain indifferent and sent him a message. After a while, we got married."
PEOPLE LIKED IT, IT REACHED MILLIONS
Elif Selen Yılmaz spoke about how the Atatürk images went viral on social media: "At first, we didn’t expect it to have such a big impact. But more and more people started sharing it, and that made us really happy. My goal was to reflect what I felt. I think that’s the reason it became popular, because there are millions of people who feel like I do. People liked it, and it spread quickly."
Elif Selen Yılmaz highlighted the rapid development of digital art and artificial intelligence technologies: "Artificial intelligence is getting stronger every day and is being used in many areas of art. It is finding more and more applications in digital art, just like in our project. We want to be pioneers and develop this field."
A RESULT MUCH MORE IMPACTFUL THAN I EXPECTED
Yunus Emre Yılmaz also shared that through this project, he met his wife, and they have been married for a year. He explained that visual creation using artificial intelligence is a newly developing field, and they have also started to focus on it. "At that time, there weren’t many stable AI applications. I had a food page related to cooking, and I was doing designs. Later, everyone wanted to see their loved ones through artificial intelligence. I decided to try creating an image of Atatürk, and the result turned out to be much more impressive than I expected. Now, I can say we’ve made it professional," Yunus Emre Yılmaz said.
WE ARE BRINGING OSAMANLIS SULTANS BACK TO LIFE
Yunus Emre Yılmaz mentioned that the process of creating visuals with artificial intelligence is not a simple task and that they use techniques different from the widely used applications. In addition to Atatürk, they have started to bring other historical leaders back to life using artificial intelligence. "Apart from Atatürk, we are bringing back the Ottoman sultans, the Göktürks, and many heroes from these lands using AI. Our aim is to help people understand these leaders better and tell their stories," he said.
CREATING IMPRESSIVE AND DETAILED IMAGES
Yunus Emre Yılmaz emphasized that artificial intelligence technology is not as simple as it may seem and described the process of creating images as follows:
"For example, it’s not possible to just write a command like ‘Atatürk sits on a chair’ and get an instant visual. The process involves restoration, restructuring, and model training. There are also stages we call ‘Lora training.’ Training a model takes about 2-3 days. Afterward, the process continues with trial and error to achieve the best result. Additionally, some Photoshop skills and manual touch-ups are needed. When all these stages are applied, truly impressive and detailed visuals emerge."
