YouTuber Shane Burcaw used AI to see how he'd look if he didn't use a wheelchair: Like 'a creepy string bean'

• YouTuber Shane Burcaw was curious to see what he would look like if he didn't use a wheelchair.
• He used an AI photo generator to find out.

A YouTuber was curious to see what he would look like if he didn't use a wheelchair, so he turned to an AI photo generator to find out.

Shane Burcaw, who is one half of the YouTube duo Squirmy and Grubs with his wife Hannah, was born with spinal muscular atrophy, and has used a wheelchair since the age of two. The channel, started five years ago, follows their life as an interabled couple, and has grown to 1.5 million subscribers.

"I've never crawled, stood, or walked," Burcaw said in a recent Instagram reel. "And I had a spinal fusion when I was seven, so I'm pretty small for a 30-year-old."

Burcaw said AI technology gave him a chance to see what he may have looked like "if I didn't have my disability." The images were watermarked the web address for Remini, which describes itself as a photo enhancing tool.

The photo generator made three images of Burcaw, and in all he appeared very tall. In one of them, he had a large neck tattoo.

"Can we all agree I would've looked like a creepy string bean?" Burcaw said. "Thankfully, I like my body the way it is!"

People in the comments agreed the photos, and said he was handsome just the way he was.

Burcaw wrote in the caption: "Don't worry, I much prefer the cute little disabled version of myself."

Burcaw and Hannah got married in 2020 after four years together. They set up their YouTube channel in 2016 to share their lives — how they met, their first dates, and travelling the world. They quickly realized people were fascinated by their story, and their dynamic with Hannah being Shane's primary caregiver.

Burcaw already had hundreds of thousands of followers on his blog, Laughing at My Nightmare, which is also the name of his first book of autobiographical essays, and their platform grew from there.

"It really became normalizing our kind of relationship and showing that people with disabilities can have happy, successful lives," Hannah previously told Insider.

"There are a lot of stigmas and misunderstandings of disability in our society, and a lot of that comes from a lack of experience with it," Burcaw added. "We do things a little bit differently — like she helps me lift my beer to my mouth — but it doesn't take away from the love and the adventure and the excitement of our life."