Darren Aronofsky’s AI Historical Series Sparks Outrage: “Absolute Dogshit” or Bold New Frontier?

Renowned filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, known for critically acclaimed works like Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Mother!, has found himself at the center of a digital firestorm with his latest project—a Revolutionary War series titled “On This Day… 1776” that’s being described as “low-effort AI slop” and “absolute dogshit” by viewers.

The series, produced through Aronofsky’s AI production company Primordial Soup in collaboration with Google DeepMind technology, is being distributed via Time magazine’s YouTube channel. The timing coincides with America’s upcoming 250th anniversary celebrations, but the execution has left audiences baffled and outraged.

The Technical Disaster Nobody Asked For

The first episode, “The Flag,” clocks in at three-and-a-half minutes and attempts to depict George Washington raising the Continental Union Flag in Somerville, Massachusetts. What viewers actually get is a nightmarish experience where everything moves with a “dead and creepy quality,” and character animations appear as though they’ve been pulled from a particularly janky video game cutscene.

The lip-syncing issues are particularly egregious. The audio from human voice actors—who belong to SAG, presumably to avoid backlash—fails to match the movements of the AI-generated characters’ mouths. The effect is reminiscent of 1960s Spaghetti Westerns where audio was recorded separately due to budget constraints in post-war Italy. Except here, there’s no artistic justification—just what appears to be cost-cutting measures.

Historical Figures Look Like Nightmares

The second episode, “Common Sense,” focuses on Thomas Paine writing his famous pamphlet and features appearances by Benjamin Franklin. The results are deeply unsettling. Franklin’s AI-generated face has become a particular point of mockery online, with one critic joking that “when Darren Aronofsky wants to feature a dead-eyed actor, he’d just employ Jared Leto.”

The series is riddled with technical glitches that AI enthusiasts have come to recognize as telltale signs of synthetic media. Background characters sport deformed, mutated hands—a notorious weakness in current AI video generation. Text that should read “America” appears as “Λamereedd,” and one particularly memorable moment features a colonist removing his hat only to reveal “a second and somehow larger hat” underneath.

Industry Backlash and Cultural Implications

The project has ignited fierce debate about AI’s role in creative industries. Hollywood professionals have been particularly vocal, having already fought against AI replacing skilled artists and actors. While SAG actors were used for voice work, the visual replacement of human performers has sparked accusations of job displacement under the guise of innovation.

Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, who purchased Time magazine in 2018, is sponsoring the series. This connection adds another layer of corporate tech-bro energy to what many see as a soulless cash grab dressed up as historical education.

Social Media Meltdown

The reaction online has been brutal. One X user wrote, “I know my expectations were low but holy fuck Darren Aronofsky producing AI slop wasn’t on my bingo card.” Another quipped on Bluesky, “Nothing represents The End of America after a 250-year run quite like using AI slop to depict the creation of the Declaration of Independence.”

The series has become a punching bag for critics who see it as emblematic of everything wrong with AI-generated content: the uncanny valley aesthetics, the technical glitches, the soulless execution, and the apparent prioritization of cost savings over quality.

Viewership Tells Its Own Story

Despite the controversy, the numbers paint a clear picture of public reception. After more than seven hours online, the first episode has garnered only 5,000 views, while the second has just over 2,000. Ironically, social media posts mocking the series are performing far better than the content itself, with one Bluesky video accumulating over 2,500 quote posts—nearly all of them jokes about how awful it looks.

The Official Defense

Ken Burns, the legendary documentary filmmaker, was contacted for comment but did not respond. Meanwhile, Ben Bitonti, president of Time Studios, offered an optimistic take: “This project is a glimpse at what thoughtful, creative, artist-led use of AI can look like—not replacing craft, but expanding what’s possible and allowing storytellers to go places they simply couldn’t before.”

Whether this defense will hold water remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Aronofsky’s AI experiment has become a cautionary tale about the perils of prioritizing technological novelty over artistic integrity and human craftsmanship.

tags

AI #DarrenAronofsky #RevolutionaryWar #TechDisaster #AITrash #AIArt #HollywoodVsAI #TimeMagazine #PrimordialSoup #GoogleDeepMind #AIAnimation #HistoricalAI #TechBacklash #CreativeDestruction #AICriticism #DigitalArt #AIContent #TechControversy #MediaFuture #AIProduction #CulturalDecay #TechEthics #AIInsanity #HistoricalAccuracy #DigitalNightmare #AIExploitation #TechBroCulture #ArtisticIntegrity #AICatastrophe #MediaMeltdown

oraciones virales

“I know my expectations were low but holy fuck Darren Aronofsky producing AI slop wasn’t on my bingo card”

“Used to be that when Darren Aronofsky wanted to feature a dead-eyed actor, he’d just employ Jared Leto”

“Love the new Aronofsky scene where the colonist takes off his hat to cheer, revealing that underneath it was a second and somehow larger hat”

“Nothing represents The End of America after a 250-year run quite like using AI slop to depict the creation of the Declaration of Independence”

“This is what happens when you let tech bros play historian”

“When your founding fathers look like they’re having a collective stroke”

“The uncanny valley just declared independence”

“George Washington would be rolling in his grave if he could see this digital abomination”

“They had 250 years to prepare for this and still managed to fuck it up with AI”

“At least the AI didn’t replace the wigs… oh wait, it did”

“This is less ‘historical drama’ and more ‘historical trauma'”

“When the founding fathers look like they’re made of Play-Doh and regret”

“The only revolution happening here is the one against bad AI”

“Benjamin Franklin looks like he’s seen some shit… and it’s this video”

“AI-generated history: where everyone looks vaguely confused and slightly melted”

“This is what happens when you ask ChatGPT to make a period piece”

“The founding fathers deserved better than this digital dumpster fire”

“When your historical figures have more glitches than the actual history they’re depicting”

“This isn’t a series, it’s a crime scene”

,