Ric Flair Made an AI Sinners Meme and People Hate It: “AI sucks”
Ric Flair posted an AI Sinners meme and it’s going about as well as you could expect. The aged former WWE Superstar and AEW performer tried to relate to the fans.
“Just in case you missed my cameo in the Movie Centers! Wooooo!,” Flair posted. The image in question shows the nature boy in Brocade’s suit with a gold watch, multiple chains and a drink in his hand. In addition he’s got a red velvet cape and a black hat on. To complete this AI monstrosity, Flair also has vampire fangs blood dribbling down his chin.
In true keeping with the times, the background of this piece doesn’t make any sense at all either. There are multiple people in the background that are dressed like they’re from right now instead of the period Sinners is actually set in. Add in the fact that there are candles that seem to be more to nothing in light sources that don’t make sense, and you have the AI aesthetic in a nutshell. Now, we should point out, The Nature Boy is 77 years old. Who knows if he’s even running his own social media at this point. (I’m going to go ahead and bet no on that!)
However, whoever’s handling the posting at this point has to know that most of the response would be ambivalent at best. Other people took issue with Flair using AI in any capacity. Julian Rodrez said, “Ai sucks.” That’s short, sweet, and to the point. @baddiemintonn pointed out that this tech has ruined more than just artists’ livelihoods. They pointed out, “2 sticks of RAM cost $900 because of ts btw.” This of course alludes to the fact that AI data centers bought up most processors and memory for the next couple of years as they anticipate growing demand for their services. Whether that materializes remains to be seen.
AI Sinners Memes and Oscar fallout
In a way AI dovetails nicely with the overall plot and themes of Sinners. Vampires feasting on cultures and legacies that are not their own in the hopes of immortality through familiarity. What else could be more perfect for the AI dream at large. I haven’t seen the prompt that the Flare team used to make that post. But, I can tell you that what they probably put in was “vampire in a bar with low lighting and wood everywhere.” And, to a certain extent, that is where a lot of the action in centers takes place. But by reducing the film to just a prompt or suggestion strips all the nuance away that made this movie such a fan favorite headed into last week’s ceremony in the first place.
Both Ryan and Zinzi Coogler have talked at length about the specificity of the story surrounding Sinners. The need to get Clarksdale MS completely right. The directing and producing duo had their sights set on telling a story about a place in time. There weren’t many short cuts you could find to tell this kind of story. Zinzi had an interview where she alluded to how they feel obligated to care for different communities when they’re telling a story like this.
Sinners and Specificity
Coogler told Marie Claire, “We find ourselves leaning into stories about communities that are, I guess you could say, underrepresented, but in a way that shows that complexity and vibrancy and joy in life.”
How does using an environmentally hazardous machine to post a quick meme take care of other communities? To go even further, how does that technology protect those communities and honor them? From this side of the screen, it treats the subjects’ stories and inspirations as mere set dressing to play with and then discard. As no one’s going to remember some goofy AI meme that costs two bathtubs worth of water and untold electricity to generate. The Nature Boy might be a doddering old guy at this point, but this was a misstep.
(featured image: WWE)
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