An artist has shared a series of AI images that have recreated Chris Rock’s point of view from the 2022 Oscars, where he was slapped by Will Smith.
During the 2022 ceremony, Oscars host Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head – a style she chose as a way of dealing with the alopecia she suffers from. Will Smith, who is married to Pinkett Smith, then walked on stage and slapped the comedian. He later shouted “keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”
The clip quickly went viral but an artist has now used the Artificial Intelligence-driven software Midjourney to create a series of images that show the altercation from Rock’s point of view.
“POV: You just talked smack about Will Smith’s wife at the Oscars (Big mistake),” wrote Barsee as he shared the first of four images.
2. Prompt:
GoPro view of Will Smith wearing a tuxedo slapping the camera forcefully, Oscars award ceremony in the background, fine art cinematic portrait photography, ultra hyper-realism, dramatic lighting, action photograph –v 5 –s 750 pic.twitter.com/NwKiJY5Uw6
— Barsee 🐶 (@heyBarsee) March 24, 2023
4. Credit and contributor – JDL4 pic.twitter.com/Mk4CISsWdV
— Barsee 🐶 (@heyBarsee) March 24, 2023
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The images have been shared across Twitter, with many users scared by the realism.
“I’m sorry but this AI thing is beginning to scare me,” wrote one user. “This makes me deeply uncomfortable,” added another while a third declared the “age of deep fakes is here!”
It comes days after an AI-generated image of Pope Francis apparently wearing a Balenciaga-inspired puffer jacket also went viral on Twitter.
Shortly afterwards, Midjourney temporarily disabled the platform’s free tier “due to a combination of extraordinary demand and trial abuse.”
AI-generated image of Pope Francis goes viral on social media. pic.twitter.com/ebfLK4F850
— Pop Base (@PopBase) March 25, 2023
Over the past year, Will Smith has reportedly “tried unsuccessfully” to make amends with Chris Rock.
In July last year, Smith posted an apology video to address his actions. “I’ve reached out to Chris [Rock] and the message that came back is he’s not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out,” he said.
During a Netflix stand-up show last month, Rock addressed the Oscars slap and said he “wasn’t a victim”.
“Everybody knows it happened,” Rock said. “I got smacked a year ago. I got smacked at the Oscars by this motherfucker. And people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I’ve got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ear.”