Word of warning, prepare to be rickrolled like you’ve never been rickrolled in the past. Thanks to AI software, you can now troll your friends with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” in crisp UHD.
CNET spotted the video, which was uploaded by YouTube user Revideo at the end of January only to be recently discovered by the internet at large this week. Revideo said they used Topaz Video Enhance, an AI-powered program for upscaling video, to remaster the clip in 4K and RIFE (Flowframes) to smooth it out to 60 frames per second. We’ve seen other people like Denis Shiryaev use similar software to update an 1896 silent film and a tour of Tokyo from before the First World War. All things considered, it’s surprising it took this long for someone to apply that same treatment to “Never Gonna Give You Up.” After all, it’s only one of the internet’s favorite videos.