This episode comprises spoilers for “South Park” season 28, episode 3, “Sora Not Sorry”.
If there’s been a recurring theme all through this season of “South Park,” it is being on the behest of a world we not acknowledge. The shock season 28 premiere noticed Jesus (Matt Stone) being worn down by what it means to be a Christian within the age of MAGA, whereas the next Halloween episode noticed Stan (Trey Parker) resorting to crypto schemes as a result of, in his phrases, South Park sucks now. Final night time’s episode, “Sora Not Sorry,” unsurprisingly takes purpose at yet one more technological scourge contributing to the rise of misinformation. It even begins out such as you’re about to see a model new episode of “South Park,” with Crimson (Mona Marshall) going door to door to get individuals to signal her petition. Issues appear instantly off as soon as she says it is in service of getting individuals to odor her farts. After which, from out of nowhere, comes Santa (Parker) saying he is actually going to pee in her face. The beginning of the episode was, in actuality, a horrifying AI deepfake video made by Butters (Stone) utilizing OpenAI’s Sora 2 generative mannequin as a type of revenge.
Kyle (Stone) and Stan act because the voices of cause right here, as they’re each disheartened by what they’re seeing. The video is circulated all through the college, which understandably makes Crimson upset. However as a substitute of reporting it, she decides to retaliate by interrupting a faculty meeting with a video that reveals Butters having intercourse with Totoro from “My Neighbor Totoro.” What follows is yet one more hilarious critique on how this deranged platform plagiarizes mental property to do probably the most heinous issues.
Sora 2 is put underneath the South Park microscope with deepfakes of branded characters doing obscene acts
About midway via “Sora Not Sorry,” there is a second the place Kyle takes Butters to name a truce with Crimson after the AI wars begin to get uncontrolled. Kenny (Stone) will get his personal AI-generated video during which he is sexually assaulted by Popeye the Sailor Man, which is blessedly performed offscreen. You possibly can inform the “AI-generated” movies aren’t really the results of utilizing Sora 2 as a result of even the non-punchlines inside them are nonetheless punchlines in and of themselves. However very similar to the opening, Kyle begins saying issues he would by no means utter, solely to have Droopy Canine from the beloved Tex Avery cartoons poop in his mouth. It will get to the purpose the place there’s a complete epidemic of AI deepfakes that weaponize branded characters like poor harmless Bluey to “go to the lavatory in a really, very unhealthy place” and not receives a commission for it.
Every thing Stone and Parker contact upon on this episode has some foundation in actuality. The indignant representatives of Studio Ghibli (Parker) being upset at Butters for defiling what’s ostensibly their Mickey Mouse is little doubt a commentary on Hayao Miyazaki’s infamous disdain for artificially generated imagery. OpenAI’s new picture generator can also be making it simpler to plagiarize Ghibli’s hand-crafted animation (through Forbes). Simply to indicate how rapidly the world makes developments in horrible choices, lower than 12 hours after final night time’s episode aired, Disney CEO Bob Iger introduced that Disney+ customers will quickly be capable of make their very own quick kind AI-generated content material (through The Hollywood Reporter). Nothing demonstrates the corporate’s adherence to upholding creativeness greater than charging individuals to desecrate their artists’ onerous work on their personal platform!
The road between artificially-generated photos and actuality is a skinny one in South Park
You’d assume all of the branded mascots pooping and peeing on the “South Park” characters was simply an instance of Stone and Parker’s infamous affinity for bathroom humor. However it could possibly’t assist however come throughout as a thinly veiled reference to an AI-generated video that President Donald J. Trump posted on his Reality Social account final month of himself offloading copious quantities of poop onto individuals attending the No Kings protest. Trump (Stone) additionally comes again into play this week because the B-plot of “Sora Not Sorry” additional builds upon the Devil butt child saga with a important growth between him and lil JD Vance (Parker). A video circulates of them getting intimate within the Lincoln bed room, however the sycophants at Fox Information have fun when he tells them it is simply AI. There’s not sufficient bleach on the planet to make me unsee that.
Cartman (Parker) could have been rescued from Peter Thiel (Stone), but he is upset at his mother and nearly everybody else believing the simply identifiable Sora 2-generated movies of him. The little menace of “South Park” solely will get discovered as a result of Butters takes duty for making Crimson’s video within the first place, which leads police to their resort room. One of many final classes right here is that these sorts of digital trickery are nonetheless extremely clear. Parker and Stone offer you a style of how they see apps like Sora 2 not solely debasing the present and their materials, however flat-out ruining lives with rampant misinformation. It does not shock me that individuals who cannot create artwork themselves consider this janky-looking AI rubbish is the way in which of the long run.
Each episode of “South Park” is at present streaming on Paramount+.
