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“So disappointing”: Weekend Update segment called out after eagle-eyed “Saturday Night Live” fans notice “lazy” AI slop graphics

weekend update snl ai graphics

Hollywood is continuing to disappoint audiences by investing in AI, but people aren't holding back their criticisms anymore. Case in point was this past weekend's edition of SNL.

AI slop spotted during Weekend Update

This week, Saturday Night Live used AI during the Weekend Update segment starring Colin Jost and Michael Che. They showed a graphic of a woman playing a slot machine at a casino that's clearly artificial.

Naturally, people aren't thrilled with the long-running show.

@ThatWeekInSNL/X

Saturday Night Live using AI is especially disappointing because the magic of the show has always been that creatives pull together to make an episode within a short amount of time.

Sure, there have been plenty of bad episodes throughout the show's 50-year run, but you could always respect the work that went into making it all happen. By cutting corners and using AI images, they're quickly killing what makes the show special.

Fans react to SNL using AI

The use of AI in film and television is bad for a number of reasons. First, AI "art" is stolen from real artists. There's no integrity involved in the creation of fake images. Second, it's bad for the environment. In the case of SNL, fans feel that using AI is lazy and takes work away from real artists.

Given all of that, fans are taking to the internet to speak out over what they saw. You can view some of the reactions below.

here is a stock vector illustration made by a real person they could have purchased for $25 and used in this segment, but their integrity is apparently not worth that.
@irregulargrapes/X

What about integrity?

What they know is most people won't notice and even fewer will care. This is really how AI will spread--slowly degrading the quality of everything
@GBBranstetter/X

Quality is dropping.

kind of kills the “this is a satire of real-life news” bit if all the graphics aren’t either 1. actual real pictures or 2. obviously photoshopped dogshit
@girldrawsghosts/X

Spoofing the news in this way feels wrong.

https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/2000212581206655450

"Less funny."

SNL employs some of the most talented production staff in all of live television and they resort to generative AI for an image of an old person at a casino??
@dontkuss/X

Ignoring talented people.

https://twitter.com/h4zelbottoms/status/2000072490853531806

Just no.

? We don’t want crappy AI. We notice it immediately, it pulls us out of the joke, and it makes us mad. You don’t need to utilize AI, and you’re undermining yourself when you do.
@SJessicaJohnson/X

You listening, Lorne?

https://twitter.com/yawyhow/status/1989923080358039882

What's surprising is that SNL did an anti-AI sketch just last month.

https://twitter.com/300latteslater/status/2000238907271839943

In conclusion, it's "disrespectful."

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The post “So disappointing”: Weekend Update segment called out after eagle-eyed “Saturday Night Live” fans notice “lazy” AI slop graphics appeared first on The Daily Dot.