A video that went viral this week shows an AI-generated take on the iconic sitcom “Friends” that’s so bizarre that it’s uncomfortable to watch.
While the set appears to be largely recognizable, the cast members bear almost no resemblance to the show’s actual human actors.
Performers also sprout random limbs, their hands teleport through doors, and at one point, towards the end of the video, one sloppified cast member mysteriously sheds a clone of herself, who immediately takes a seat on a nearby couch.
Ironically, while it fudged the faces of the show’s well-known actors, the sounds of the voices of “Friends” stars, including Courteney Cox and the late Matthew Perry, are far more believable — if it weren’t for some seriously stilted and nonsensical delivery, that is.
In short, the video is nothing short of a Lynchian nightmare, a surreal and unnervingly inhuman reconstruction of an extremely well-known franchise.
The clip highlights the many shortcomings of AI-powered video generator apps. That’s despite many billions of dollars being poured into the tech, as the gap between an AI future we’re being promised and the current state of AI tools continues to balloon.
Meanwhile, AI evangelists continue to prop up these tools as the future of entertainment, prompting widespread skepticism. Just last week, an AI investor was raked over the coals on social media for claiming that “AI games are going to be amazing,” appending an unintentionally hilarious clip of an AI-generated first-person shooter.
The person who posted the latest “Friends” video, an AI tech enthusiast who goes by TechHalla, similarly argued that “sitcoms will never be the same.”
But given the overwhelmingly negative reactions his post garnered, he was largely alone in that belief.
“Yeah man, this is great stuff if you have the brain of a lobotomized golden retriever,” one user tweeted in response.
Others pointed out the irony of claiming that the rehashing of a show that wrapped up its last season over 21 years ago was the future of the medium.
“Putting aside the incoherent nonsense of the clip, it’s funny to say ‘Sitcoms will never be the same’ while slavishly recreating (or attempting to) a sitcom that already exists,” another user wrote.
“This must be amazing if you’re not really into the whole ‘jokes’ or ‘storyline’ aspects of sitcoms, and the thing you like about TV is just seeing all the colours and shapes moving around,” one user joked.
Many criticized TechHalla for celebrating the destruction of human creativity, with AI slop becoming an inevitable part of our daily lives. Besides, what did the sloppified “Friends” clip even demonstrate in the first place?
“A lot of comments dunking on Friends for being slop in the first place, which I’m not gonna argue with,” one user tweeted, “but what I would question is whether training AIs on the vast quantity of s*** sitcoms that exist already is likely to generate better and more inventive sitcoms.”
“Humans have the creative ability to dream up actually new and innovative ideas to push the genre forward,” another user agreed. “Robots can’t and can only regurgitate data based upon what they’ve already observed.”
More on AI slop videos: We’re Laugh-Crying at This Footage of an AI-Generated Video Game