‘SNL’ Draws Backlash for Reportedly Using AI

Saturday Night Live often gives audiences a lot to talk about each week, but this week’s episode sparked some unexpected backlash, as many viewers accused the comedy show of using AI-generated images multiple times throughout the broadcast. While the accusations have not been officially addressed by NBC, there were enough peculiarities found multiple times in the episode to see audiences calling out the program.

Just moments into the episode, audiences were taken into the pages of a book that resembled that of a holiday-themed Christmas story, though the image of a girl kneeling mysteriously omitted one of her legs. Additionally, a serene neighborhood covered in snow showed some subtle inconsistencies that pointed towards AI generation. These images initially alerted viewers to the possible use of AI, but it wasn’t until the “Weekend Update” segment that such images seemed more obvious.

One image featured an older woman wearing an oxygen mask at a slot machine, while another image featured a horse sitting between two passengers on an airplane. Both images featured the typical sheen seen on AI images, along with a variety of other small abnormalities. You can see the images from the episode below.

Fans Call Out ‘SNL’

The tight turnaround of each episode of Saturday Night Live often means the production will have to cut corners, though the series is rarely called out for ever delivering anything that looked cheap. In fact, the ways in which any graphics, videos, sets, or costumes don’t meet the same level of quality as series with much more time to produce is what gives SNL its charm. Especially knowing the many talented people who put SNL together each week is what makes the issue so frustrating.

The social media account of the podcast That Week in SNL was quick to point out what appeared to be AI, noting, “Has the show done Gen AI twice tonight (opening cold open drawings and the Grandma joke in Update)?” This was followed by the much more disappointed response, “Yeah, get the f*ck outta here with that sh*t right now.” User @KaptinYap confirmed, “Bad photoshop will always be funnier than this,” while @dragonfudge noted, “Graphics’ departments and their photoshop skills are so integral to these shows that they’re a regular feature of Seth Meyers’ Corrections bits. Hugely disappointing to see this from SNL.”

Josh Billinson emphasized the idea that the lo-fi nature of the series adds to its charm, explaining, “A lot of reasons why SNL using AI for stuff like this sucks, but my main gripe is just that it’s less funny! The intentionally kind of janky photoshops are part of the joke and beat the weird smooth AI aesthetic.”

Sadly, this is seemingly only the latest instance of a major institution using AI, as Coca-Cola released a holiday commercial this year that proudly proclaims, “Created by Real Magic AI,” while The Walt Disney Company recently signed a deal with Sora. Making the alleged use of AI by SNL all the more ironic is that last month, in the episode hosted by Glen Powell, a sketch made fun of the process of using AI to turn antique photos into videos and how horrible it looks, and an episode in January hosted by Timothée Chalamet similarly highlighted how nightmarish it looks to use AI to generate images of humans.