You’re playing with fire any time you combine AI and filmmaking. But a new collection of AI short films that premiered in Cannes this week — but crucially, not at the actual Cannes Film Festival — is really testing the public’s patience with the tech.
Made by the Norwegian company Multiformat and distributed by the streamer Cultpix, the films were created by using generative AI to turn photos from a 1976 erotic magazine into moving images, complete with sound and dialogue, Variety reported. (The collection’s name, “Sh(AI)ved,” is nearly as infuriating as its concept.)
If the goal was to be this Cannes season’s cause célèbre, it’s working. Uproar erupted on social media blasting the use of the technology and the ethical violations it raised around consent, which seemed to be a question that the filmmakers barely even considered.
“Statistically at least a few of these models have passed on by now which basically means they’re using AI to reanimate the bodies/images of dead women to make nonconsensual porn of them,” fumed one commentator on Bluesky. “Whatever explanation they’re f*cking giving for it is just them jerking themselves off some more.”
“Personally, I think using AI to simulate porn of people who didn’t consent to you is a vile, horrific crime!” another wrote on X.
AI is already controversial for vaguely amalgamating existing artwork and images without the original artists’ permission. But this critique is even more salient with Cultpix’s project, as it is directly transforming the likenesses of real people, who are shown in sexual poses without their permission. Were any of the women in the erotic mags contacted about this? Regardless, there’s no excuse to not be aware of these questions. The use of AI tools to nonconsensually generated sexual images of people has been a hot button issue this year, flaring up around Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot being used to digitally “undress” women and children. The film’s creators, however, seemed more focused on aesthetic trends.
“We want to use the latest technology to stimulate a discussion about attitudes to images that are now half a century old,” Cultpix CEO Rickard Gramfors said told Variety. “What was once considered shocking ‘adult’ material now seems remarkably innocent by today’s standards.”
Ill advisedly, the Cultplix official X account entered the social media fray to argue with critics in the replies.
“It’s an experiment,” Cultpix defended. “We want to see what people think, positive and negative.” In another post, Cultpix seemed to argue that it didn’t need to get consent, since it was already given — fifty years ago.
“These were paid [performers] who consented to have their hanky panky recorded. We added motion and sound,” it proclaimed.
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