If you’ve been scrolling through your For You Page on TikTok, you’ve probably come across the bizarre history-themed AI POV videos.
TikTok‘s latest viral trend has users diving into history. The AI-generated ‘POV’ (point of view) videos recreate fictional day-in-the-life scenarios from different moments in time, capturing everything from historic disasters to mundane daily routines of the past.
The trend started with TikTokers using AI to create immersive glimpses of life in different eras, often blending dark humor and creative storytelling.
Popular accounts like timetravellerpov have been leading the charge in this trend, creating videos that transport viewers to places like Pompeii during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Black Plague in 1351, a coal mine in the 1900s, or even the Titanic.
AI POV trend explained
Each video usually begins with a dramatic title like “POV: You Wake Up in 1351 During the Black Plague” or “POV: You Wake Up As A Gladiator In Rome.” Through AI-generated imagery and narration, viewers are guided through surreal and exaggerated recreations of these moments.
The videos are often inaccurate, sometimes featuring odd AI glitches like people with six fingers or distorted faces, adding an eerie and uncanny vibe.
One of the most popular videos, “POV: You Wake Up in 1351 During the Black Plague,” has racked up over 19.5 million views.
Another viral video, where viewers “wake up” as a Chernobyl worker in 1986, has surpassed 21.8 million views and almost 2 million likes.
Comments on these videos are often a mix of amusement and bafflement, with one user joking, “I’ve died in Pompeii, survived the Titanic, went to Hogwarts, and now I’m in Chernobyl. Help.”
While some TikTok users love the creativity and surreal nature of these videos, others find the content eerie or disrespectful, especially when depicting real tragedies.
However, the trend also includes lighthearted POVs, like waking up as a 2000s kid or a mermaid princess, offering a lighter take on the format.
Whether people love the trend, parody it, or question it, these history-themed AI POV videos have undeniably taken over TikTok’s For You Pages in February 2025.
It’s just one of the many trends gaining traction on TikTok, alongside the popular Microwave AI Filter and the hilarious ‘brain rot words list’ craze.