There are plenty of reasons why the emergence of AI should make you angry. It will destroy creativity. It will take your job. It will, in years to come, gain vengeful sentience and doom humankind to a life of miserable enslavement. However, by the far the very worst thing that AI has ever done – and potentially the worst thing that it will ever do – is make all those crummy Wes Anderson parodies.
You know the ones. Last month a number of AI-generated photos were shared on Twitter, of what the Harry Potter franchise would look like if it had been directed by Wes Anderson. And, you guessed it, they all show the Harry Potter characters standing dead centre in front of various meticulously designed backdrops. They also all happen to be wearing the sort of garish outfits you only really find in the most obnoxious percentile of east London hipster brunch spots. No character in Wes Anderson’s entire filmography has ever worn the sort of garish paisley Banana Splits outfit that Harry Potter wears here, for instance. But, hey, let’s not let accuracy get in the way of an easy gag.
