Hey! I was watching Eurovision tiktoks the other day and someone in the comments mentioned that Hatari’s been using AI? I’d not heard anything about it so I had no idea if they meant like in their songs or something else but I just thought I’d ask on here to see if you knew anything about it at all :)
Hatari released a video for their song "Breadcrumbs" in December that consists of sequences of creepy, unsettling obvious AI imagery:
At least some of the shots look like they may be morphs based on photographs, sort of like you see in those "AI turns memes into videos" collections, where the AI generates video "continuing from" a genuine still frame, usually with strange/nonsensical results (in the video, they're clearly actively going for strange/nonsensical results).
Obviously AI is a controversial topic today and some people are livid at anyone using generative AI for anything. Personally, I think this video is a pretty reasonable use case for generative AI in art, as far as that goes:
It is not deceptive; the imagery is obviously unrealistic and leaning into the uncanny nature of AI video. It is not being passed off as real footage or as something made by human hand.
It is not being used as a cheap substitute for hiring actual artists for a project. Hatari are artists, whose artistic vision for this one particular video is pretty clearly about it being AI-generated and how weird and uncanny it is. If they'd had a different vision, they could have made a regular video, as they've already shown they're perfectly capable of, but here they clearly wanted to do this specifically.
It is not ripping off some other artist's particular unique style without their permission or input; the aesthetic portrayed is very much just an uncanny version of some of Hatari's own aesthetic direction.
Hatari's shtick has always involved intentionally pissing everyone off, being a bit unsettling, and a heavy sense of irony and contemplation on contradictions; I think doing this video, blending sexually charged BDSM imagery and the intimate nature of that with the unpleasant and utterly impersonal and inhuman jarringness of AI video, basically slots in with the type of thing they'd do (and with the losing connection theme of the song).
Just saying "Hatari has been using AI" with no elaboration makes it sound as if their music is deceptively AI-generated. This is not the case. They made a single music video using AI, in a way we are obviously meant to identify as AI and engage with on the basis of it being AI. There is nothing to suggest that they have used AI or are planning to use AI for anything other than the imagery of this particular video.
I'm not particularly interested in debating the merits of it beyond this explanation, but I hope it helps you understand what's up!
