SNL Remains Quiet About AI Image In Trump Weekend Update Segment
The use of undeclared AI-generated images by Saturday Night Live during its Weekend Update segment has raised questions among viewers and critics alike.
This challenge emerged recently when a joke by Colin Jost was paired with an image that appeared to be created through artificial intelligence.
“This week, President Trump led a rally celebrating his handling of the economy, which, for some reason, he held at a casino in the Poconos,” Jost remarked. He continued, “Which is kind of weird to say: the future is brighter than ever. Isn’t that right? Woman on oxygen playing the nickel slots.”
The accompanying image, which echoed Jost’s punchline, bore the distinctive traits of AI-generation, often characterized by an odd, unrefined quality readily available on social media.
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A spokesperson for Saturday Night Live did not respond to a request for comment.
Viewers expressed concern that the AI-generated image undermined Jost’s comedic timing. Josh Billinson, a senior social media editor at Semafor, stated, “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.”
Gillian Branstetter, a communications strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union, echoed these sentiments: “What they know is most people won’t notice and even fewer will care. This is really how AI will spread–slowly degrading the quality of everything.”
In another segment, AI imagery was potentially employed to illustrate a Christmas storybook, further fueling the discussion on its use within the show.
NBCUniversal, the parent company, has not publicly detailed its AI principles for editorial content but has addressed its stance on political ads, emphasizing the need for advertisers to “prominently disclose” the use of “synthetic media.”
Saturday Night Live itself poked fun at AI-generated imagery just last month in a sketch featuring Glen Powell. Titled AI Photos, the skit portrayed a grandmother revisiting memories through an app that produced laughably animated images, including a woman smoking a hot dog and floating bowling balls.
