Netflix finds itself once again under the radar, this time for having generated the portrait of a criminal by AI in one of its documentaries. Many people today ask themselves the question of the ethics behind this practice. Was it absolutely necessary to illustrate the latter from a flattering angle?
It’s no surprise to anyone that generative artificial intelligence has started to infiltrate the creation of series. Recently, Disney made no secret of having used ChatGPT to write certain elements in its series Save the Tigers. But image generation tools are also popular with producers. HBO, for example, was seduced by creating certain settings for True Detective from scratch with AI.
It is therefore no surprise to see Netflix getting involved. However, the platform has decided to go a little further than its peers, to the point, perhaps, of crossing the limit. Indeed, his recent documentary Jennifer’s Truths quickly aroused the suspicions of viewers following the broadcast of certain portraits. Strange hands, abnormally long teeth, we find the whole range of common errors of image-generating AI.
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Did Netflix go too far in recreating the portrait of a criminal with AI?
This is already enough to exasperate many Internet users. But this time, it is the context that raises the question, because Jennifer’s Truths is not just any documentary. The film traces the story of Jennifer Pan, a Canadian teenager who ordered the murder of her mother in 2010. However, it is indeed the portrait of Jennifer that Netflix decided to recreate using AI to illustrate its documentary.
The images appear around the 28th minute, when the criminal is described as “bubbly, happy, confident and very sincere”. For some, this flirts with the morally wrong. Using AI to represent a real person in a documentary indeed raises ethical questions, although Netflix explains that it was impossible to use real photos for legal reasons. Still, showing a criminal responsible for a tragic event in a flattering angle raises questions, while other solutions existed to illustrate her personality.
Source: Futurism