Fake it if you can’t afford it: The dystopian app that generates AI summer memories
In an age when hustle culture is celebrated and workdays stretch from dawn till dusk, it seems fitting — if not a little absurd — that an app now offers to take your summer holiday for you.
Endless Summer, a new iPhone app by product designer Laurent Del Rey, creates AI-generated vacation photos featuring you in sunlit settings across the world.
One moment you are lounging by a South American beach, the next, you are sipping coffee on a European balcony. All without ever leaving your desk. The app fabricates entire photo collections where you appear happy, relaxed and far removed from deadlines.
Del Rey, who recently joined Meta's Superintelligence Lab, told TechCrunch that he built the app as a way to "manifest the soft life you deserve" when burnout hits. He described it as a way to capture the feeling of summer, even when the season is over.
Endless Summer runs on Gemini's Nano Banana image model, which generates variations of your virtual travels. Users can make up to six free photos before a paywall appears, offering options like $3.99 for 30 images or $17.99 for 150. There is even a "Room Service" feature that delivers two new photos each morning, showing your latest imaginary adventures.
The app's photos have a nostalgic film-like aesthetic, resembling the casual snapshots of early social media. It taps into a wider trend of people embracing imperfection online. Still, there is something uncanny about AI recreating the messy, beautiful spontaneity of real life.
After all, when you cannot live the moment, why not let an algorithm pretend you did?