Rap legend Tupac Shakur, soulful English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse and many other beloved “once-in-a-lifetime” talents have been tragically deprived of a full life to share their gifts with the world.

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Tupac Shakur Amy Winehouse Chris Farley Heath Ledger HOW TO DETECT A DEEPFAKE

But DailyMail.com wondered what some of these icons would have been like if they had lived into their golden years.

So we put image-making artificial intelligence (AI) Midjourney to work to help imagine what these stars might have looked like at age 80.

The results were unusual and astonishing, as might be expected from a machine that manifests snapshots of an alternate dimension of what might have been.

Scroll down to see if you recognize these famous figures in their AI-generated old age. The results may surprise you.

Midjourney’s Answer to What an 80-Year-Old Tupac Would Have Been Like

American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur died in a shooting, which has remained unsolved for 27 years, although an arrest was made in the case on Friday.

Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur is remembered today as much for his moving hits as ‘Changes’ and ‘Dear Mama’, as well as for his social activism and the enduring mystery of his 1996 murder.

Shakur was only 25 years old when he was shot four times in the chest on September 7, 1996 in Las Vegas. The rap icon died of complications from those injuries almost a week later, on September 13.

Although decades have passed without much progress on his murder, Duane ‘Keefe D’Davis arrested on Friday and charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon.

Would Amy Winehouse have kept her iconic “beehive” if she had lived to become a grande dame of pop music? Midjourney apparently thought so, even when the AI dramatically checked the singer’s tattoo sleeves.

Above, Amy Winehouse at the 2007 Elle Style Awards in London

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse was 27 years old when she was found dead at her home in Camden, north London, a victim of acute alcohol toxicity.

The Grammy-winning artist behind ‘Back to Black,’ ‘Stronger than Me,’ and ‘Rehab’ faced her demons both through her pop art and through her private attempts to regain her sobriety.

Some who knew her blame not only the pressures of fame, but also stress compounded by the demands of her record label’s top management.

As her childhood friend Tyler James made clear in his harrowing account of the singer’s final weeks, he believes Winehouse’s managers played a role in her demise, pressuring her to keep working while battling her demons.

Would Winehouse have maintained her iconic ‘beehive’ style if she had lived to become a grande dame of pop music?

Midjourney apparently thought so, even when the AI dramatically checked the singer’s tattoo sleeves.

Had he remained alive, Midjourney’s AI imagines that comedian Chris Farley would have retained both his sparkle and his hair color into his 80s.

Chris Farley (right) in 1993, with his friend and SNL co-star Chris Rock during the 65th Annual Academy Awards – Elton John AIDS Foundation Party in Los Angeles

Chris Farley

Comedy legend Chris Farley was still making his transition from Saturday Night Live standout to comedy movie staple when a drug overdose claimed his life on December 18, 1997.

Farley was 33 years old.

DailyMail.com requested “a photorealistic image of what comedian Chris Farley would look like if he were 80 years old.” Had he remained alive, Midjourney’s AI imagines the comedian would have retained both his spark and his hair color into his 80s.

As a nod to NBC studios, the request added that ‘Radio City Music Hall’ be ‘in the background behind it,’ which appears to have confused the AI image maker by producing what looks like a generic backdrop from New York.

DailyMail.com requested an “artistic-looking” photorealistic image of what “celebrity, actor and “Knight’s Tale” star Heath Ledger would look like if he were an 80-year-old man.”

This March 5, 2006, file photo shows Australian actor Heath Ledger arriving at the 78th Academy Awards at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Heath Ledger

It’s been 15 years since Heath Ledger died at age 28 after an overdose.

While the actor whose roles as the Joker in The Dark Knight and a cowboy in Brokeback Mountain conveyed his range as a performer, Ledger was battling insomnia and anxiety in his final days, friends and family said.

DailyMail.com requested an “artistic-looking” photorealistic image of what “celebrity, actor and “Knight’s Tale” star Heath Ledger would look like if he were an 80-year-old man.”

Ledger, according to the message, should be “sitting in a convertible parked in Los Angeles at dusk.”

Midjourney artificial intelligence (AI) program creates images from simple text prompts

Midjourney’s AI-based technology allows you to create images from simple text messages.

Over the past year, there has been a rise in text-to-image generators amid the broader rise of generative artificial intelligence, which underpins software that creates text, sounds or images based on the data it receives.

Using the technology, users input prompts ranging from simple tasks, such as drawing a dog, to absurd tasks, such as depicting an object in an environment or form in which it would not normally appear.

The software then generates the image in the form of a realistic photograph or professional painting.

The technology takes billions of images from the Internet, identifying patterns between the photo and the text words that accompany them.

HOW TO DETECT A DEEPFAKE

1. Unnatural eye movement. Eye movements that don’t look natural (or a lack of eye movement, such as no blinking) are big red flags. It is a challenge to replicate the act of blinking in a way that appears natural. It is also a challenge to replicate the eye movements of a real person. This is because a person’s eyes usually follow the person they are talking to.

2. Unnatural facial expressions. When something doesn’t look right on a face, it could indicate a facial transformation. This occurs when one image has been stitched onto another.

3. Awkward positioning of facial features. If someone’s face is pointing in one direction and their nose is pointing in another direction, you should be skeptical about the authenticity of the video.

4. Lack of emotion. You can also detect what’s known as a “facial morph” or image points if someone’s face doesn’t seem to exhibit the emotion that should accompany what they’re supposedly saying.

5. Uncomfortable looking body or posture. Another sign is if a person’s body shape looks unnatural or if the position of the head and body is uncomfortable or inconsistent. This may be one of the easiest inconsistencies to spot, because deepfake technology typically focuses on facial features rather than the entire body.

6. Unnatural body movement or body shape. If someone appears distorted or dull when they turn to the side or move their head, or their movements are choppy and disjointed from one frame to the next, you should suspect the video is fake.

7. Unnatural coloring. Abnormal skin tone, discoloration, strange lighting, and out-of-place shadows are all signs that what you’re seeing is probably fake.

8. Hair that doesn’t look real. You will not see frizzy or loose hair. Because? Fake images will not be able to generate these individual characteristics.

9. Teeth that don’t look real. The algorithms may not be able to generate individual teeth, so the absence of individual tooth outlines could be a clue.

10. Blur or misalignment. If the edges of the images are blurry or the images are misaligned (for example, where someone’s face and neck meet their body), you know something is wrong.

11. Noise or inconsistent audio. Deepfake creators typically spend more time on video images than audio. The result can be poor lip syncing, robotic-sounding voices, strange word pronunciation, digital background noise, or even no audio at all.

12. Images that look unnatural when slowed down. If you watch a video on a screen larger than your smartphone or have video editing software that can slow down video playback, you can zoom in and examine the images more closely. Bringing your lips together, for example, will help you see if they’re really speaking or if your lip sync is off.

13. Hashtag discrepancies. There is a cryptographic algorithm that helps video creators prove that their videos are authentic. The algorithm is used to insert hashtags in certain places throughout a video. If the hashtags change, then you should suspect manipulation of the video.

14. Fingerprints. Blockchain technology can also create a digital fingerprint for videos. While not foolproof, this blockchain-based verification can help establish the authenticity of a video. Is that how it works. When a video is created, the content is recorded in a ledger that cannot be changed. This technology can help prove the authenticity of a video.

15. Reverse Image Searches. A search for an original image or a computer-assisted reverse image search can uncover similar videos online to help determine whether an image, audio, or video has been altered in any way. While reverse video search technology is not yet publicly available, investing in a tool like this could prove useful.