SNL Season 51: Live From New York, It's Saturday Night...AI?
· BCPosted in: Current News, NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl
SNL Season 51: Live From New York, It's Saturday Night…AI?
Does NBC's Saturday Night Live have some AI explaining to do? SNL viewers red-flagged an image used during the most recent "Weekend Update."
Published Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:02:07 -0600
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary
- SNL fans noticed a suspicious image during a recent Weekend Update, fueling rumors of AI-generated visuals.
- Deadline Hollywood's Hive's AI detector run gave a 99.9% probability the controversial casino image behind Colin Jost was AI-created.
- SNL has not commented on using generative AI for its background graphics, leaving viewers wondering how long this has been in practice.
- This incident highlights serious concerns about the growing use of AI in mainstream entertainment.
When you hear that there's buzz rumbling out of a recent edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live, you hope it's for something like the "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch or Melissa McCarthy cleaning the passenger window of a car with her breasts in anger. You don't want the buzz to be about SNL using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create background images for "Weekend Update." Unfortunately, it seems like the latter is the case this week. During a headline/joke about Donald Trump holding a rally in support of the U.S. economy at a casino in the Poconos, Colin Jost hit the joke with, "Which is kind of weird to say: the future is brighter than ever. Isn't that right? Woman on oxygen playing the nickel slots."
Behind Jost, an image of a woman on oxygen playing a slot machine appeared, with both the speed/accuracy of the image and what many are calling instances of "AI slop" being called out. For their part, Deadline Hollywood shared that it took a screenshot of the image and ran it through Hive's AI detetor, which brought back a 99.9% probability that the image was AI-generated. A spokesperson for SNL did not respond to DH's request for a comment. Until we get some clarity on the matter, enjoy this bit of potential irony from just a few weeks back:
The Season 51 cast includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang, along with current featured players Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. Joining them are newcomers Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.
New writers for this season include actor-writer Jack Bensinger (Rap World), stand-up comedian Jo Sunday (Just for Laughs), comic Maddie Wiener (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon), actor and writer Rachel Pegram (Harley Quinn), writer-comedian Claire McFadden (Second City), Maxwell Gay (The Harvard Lampoon), and Tucker Flodman (The Harvard Lampoon). NBC's Saturday Night Live premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, and broadcasts live from NBC's famed Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center. The program is a production of Broadway Video in association with SNL Studios. Lorne Michaels is the executive producer.
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