Chances are that you have also joined the latest ChatGPT trend that has people turning their personal photographs into retro-looking images inspired by the 1980s. From vintage hairstyles and outfits to old-school colours and film-like textures, users increasingly catching on the trend to AI-generate 80s' versions of themselves.An AI-generated image capturing the viral 1980s image trend (ChatGPT)But as the trend goes viral, it also raises a familiar question – how safe is it to upload a personal photograph, particularly one showing your face, to an AI chatbot?Privacy concerns around AI-generated images are not new. Earlier viral trends, including the ChatGPT Ghibli-style as well as caricature image craze, have been among the times that prompted cybersecurity and privacy experts to warn users about the amount of personal information they were voluntarily handing over to AI platforms.The warningsWhen an earlier AI caricature trend went viral, cybersecurity experts warned that users could be too quick to participate without considering what happens to the information they upload."Every time these trends pop up, people are often quicker to jump on the bandwagon than to question what might actually lie behind them," Forbes quoted Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, as saying in a February 2026 report.Moore also warned about what happens after users upload photographs and personal details to an AI chatbot. "When you upload photos and personal details to a chatbot such as ChatGPT, the platform "collects all of this information and analyses it," says Moore. "This information gets stored and is used to train these impressive models alongside unclear long term uses."The concern, experts said, can grow as users provide more information to get a more accurate AI-generated image.'Actively feeding key personal details'Matt Conlon, CEO and co-founder at security firm Cytidel, as said: "With the current AI caricature craze, users are "actively feeding increasingly detailed personal information into generative models to improve the output," says Matt Conlon. "If the result isn't accurate, they simply add more context, effectively training an AI system with highly personal data."Conlon further warned that what appears to be an innocuous photo trend could have longer-term privacy implications."While entering your data to create the ChatGPT caricature feels harmless and fun, this behavior "raises serious data privacy concerns and could increase the risk of identity theft in the future." Conlon warns. "Once that information is uploaded, there's no guarantee it can be fully removed or controlled," Forbes quoted him as saying.Concern about 'normalising' personal data sharingAnother issue raised in earlier reportings was that repeated viral trends could make uploading personal information to AI tools feel increasingly routine.Chris Linnell, associate director of data privacy at consultancy Bridewell, warned that there is a risk of "normalising the sharing of photos and detailed personal or professional information with AI tools, without fully considering how that data might be used or retained."Linnell also explained that the apparent personalisation of an AI-generated image does not necessarily mean the chatbot has independently gathered information about the person."To generate a caricature, ChatGPT relies on content actively provided by the user, such as uploaded images, prompts, and descriptive information. It does not independently search the internet for personal details about an individual, but the output quality can give the impression of deep personal insight because of the richness of the data people supply," Forbes quoted him as saying.There is also a risk beyond the AI platform itself once an image is posted publicly. "Content can be copied, reposted, or scraped beyond its original context and control," Linnell said.That means the privacy question does not necessarily end with the original upload. A user may subsequently share the AI-generated image on Instagram, X, Facebook or other platforms, creating another layer of exposure.‘Company collects personal data’During the earlier Ghibli-style image trend as well, which went viral in April last year - concerns about users voluntarily uploading personal photographs to OpenAI's chatbot were raised.Several argued that such trends could give OpenAI access to thousands of voluntarily submitted images, including facial data, while users were primarily focused on creating and sharing stylised versions of themselves.Back then Luiza Jarovsky, co-founder of the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, discussed the distinction between voluntarily submitted images and images scraped from the internet. "Moreover, OpenAI's privacy policy explicitly states that the company collects personal data input by users to train its AI models when users haven't opted out," she wrote in a lengthy post on X.She further said OpenAI was gaining access to personal or private images that might otherwise remain unavailable to it."Moreover, the trend is ongoing, and people are learning that when they want a fun avatar of themselves, they can simply upload their pictures to ChatGPT. They no longer need third-party providers for that," she said.These comments were made in the context of the earlier Ghibli trend, but the basic issue - users voluntarily uploading photographs to an AI service to transform them - also applies to newer image-generation trends.What ChatGPT said when asked if it is safeWhen ChatGPT was asked specifically whether uploading a personal photograph to create an 1980s-style picture is safe, it said there are privacy considerations despite describing the practice as generally reasonable.Here's what ChatGPT said:"Yes - generally, uploading a personal photo to ChatGPT to create an 1980s-style image is reasonable, but there are some privacy considerations.Only upload a photo you're comfortable sharing with the service. A clear face is personal information, so treat it differently from an anonymous stock image.Avoid photos containing other people unless you're comfortable with them being included too.Don't include sensitive details in the background-addresses, IDs, documents, children's school information, etc.If the photo is especially private or you're uncomfortable with cloud processing, consider using a local/offline image-editing tool instead.You can also use a cropped portrait rather than uploading the entire original photo."The advice essentially comes down to a simple distinction – a fun AI trend does not eliminate the privacy implications of the photograph being uploaded in the first place.Users participating in the 1980s trend can therefore consider using a photograph that reveals as little additional personal information as possible, cropping out sensitive backgrounds and avoiding pictures of people who have not agreed to have their images processed.