“You can tell Sydney Sweeney signed a bunch of dumb sponsor contracts when she was less famous so now she’s stuck pretending AI is super cool.”
Thanks, I Hate It
We’re not entirely sure why exactly Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney attended Samsung’s tech conference in Paris on Wednesday — but if we had to guess, we’d assume the tech giant sufficiently sweetened the deal for her.
Worst of all, Sweeney was roped into an extremely cringeworthy tech demo involving the company’s latest AI image generator, which can turn users’ faces into stilted drawings and clumsy 3D renders — yet another AI feature that practically nobody asked for.
During the presentation, the camera awkwardly cuts to Sweeney sitting in the audience.
“Now I think we’ve got the actor Sydney Sweeney in the audience today,” Samsung marketing exec Annika Bizon said. “Hey Sydney, are you there?”
“Hiii,” Sweeney replied sheepishly. “I’m over here.”
Bizon then showed off a cartoonish and low-effort “3D image” inspired by her face that barely even resembled her.
“Awww, I love it!” Sweeney answered after being asked what she thought of the abomination, though her face seemed to betray more complicated feelings. “It’s amazing you can take an image like this.”
Sydney Sweeney’s reaction to Samsung showcasing an AI-generated 3D image based on her own portrait.
“It’s amazing you can take an image like this” pic.twitter.com/jlLwKKzBT2
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) July 10, 2024
Genuine Reaction
But Sweeney’s stilted and more-than-likely scripted reaction to the sickly-looking AI didn’t come across as convincing to many.
“That didn’t seem very genuine, lol,” one user wrote on X-formerly-Twitter.
“Look at her face bro she hates it,” another user added.
Others took pity on her.
“You can tell Sydney Sweeney signed a bunch of dumb sponsor contracts when she was less famous so now she’s stuck pretending AI is super cool,” one user tweeted.
“She is visibly uncomfortable,” another user argued.
Samsung is marketing the AI feature as a way to “reimagine your portraits.” All the user has to do is pick the style they like the best.
But as far as we’re concerned, it’s an already extremely dated use of the tech. In a world where simple text prompts can be turned into somewhat convincing videos, generating cringe watercolor or pencil sketch renditions of your face is far from revolutionary.
In many ways, it’s just another indication that tech giants’ obsession with AI is as strong as it’s ever been — and they’re willing to throw Hollywood stars under the bus to convince their customers that they should care about features that very few will ever use.
More on AI portraits: AI Is Being Trained on Images of Real Kids Without Consent
