"One of the huge joys of Saturday Night Live over the last 50 years has been the extraordinary level of craft that goes into every episode. The sketches might often suck, but the sets, costumes and make-up will be incredible, despite the long-experienced crew often having less than 24 hours notice of what needs to be prepared. It's been a stunning achievement for five decades, which makes this week's episode's extensive use of AI slop an extraordinary letdown."
"From the opening moment of the Josh O'Connor-hosted episode, it looked like AI art was being used in place of the usually superb creations of the long-running show's incredible prop and design team. A storybook with a poem loosely in the style of The Night Before Christmas, leading up to a cold-open with Trump giving interviews on Air Force One, was illustrated with artwork that looked incredibly likely to be AI-generated."
"While not egregiously bad, little details appear to give the game away, like the suddenly broken path in a picture of a snowy village: And this girl's frighteningly thin leg and then entirely missing second foot: Plus it all just has that look, that sheen that rings hollow. As soon as it appeared on screen it looked off to me, and I remember thinking how disappointing it is to see a real artist denied the chance to draw something lovely for the show."
"Things became more egregious during Weekend Update, where the usually amusingly poor Photoshops and stock images that appear over Colin Jost and Michael Che's shoulders were replaced with extremely suss slop. A gag about a horse on a plane received this image that-in fairness-looks like the usual amusingly slapdash Photoshopping, until you look a bit closer at details like the foreheads of the people in the rows behind. And then what might be an attempt to remove the horse's genitals, but it's damned weird."
Saturday Night Live delivered exceptional craft across sets, costumes, props and make-up for five decades despite tight, sub-24-hour preparation windows. The recent Josh O'Connor-hosted episode used AI-generated imagery in place of the usual practical art and design. A storybook and cold-open illustrations displayed visual artifacts such as broken paths and anatomically incorrect figures. Weekend Update images replaced the show's normally amateurish Photoshops with AI errors including distorted foreheads and oddly edited animal anatomy. Several images showed hoses not touching cans and other compositional errors. The use of AI imagery produced a hollow, off-screen sheen and deprived working artists of drawing opportunities.
Read at Kotaku
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