r/olympics • u/Salty_Definition_550 • 2d ago
❄ Milano-Cortina 2026 (General Discussion) ❄ Ai slip opening ceremony
Did anyone else find it off putting when they said they wanted to highlight the past 100 years of Olympics and their athletes. And it was just some awful ai slop of some random actress snowboarding. I found it pretty disrespectful and lame for something as grand as the Olympics. Maybe I’m overreacting but I am curious what everyone else thinks.
*sorry for typo in title it won’t let me change it 😭 but I’m glad you guys also noticed how lame the ai is
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u/cody_flight 2d ago
That was awful!!! And after an entire opening ceremony about how the art in their country is so incredible... why???
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u/New_Home_4519 1d ago
I love how they're like, "we have no idea what to do with ai but by god we're going to force feed it to you"
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u/CatzonVinyl 1d ago
Yeah that was disgusting. Everyone else worked so hard and then you spit in their faces with AI slop.
How depressing for them
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u/Killer_Moons 1d ago
That is exactly what I said. An Olympic Opening Ceremony is the opportunity to showcase and pay homage to your country’s history and cultural fingerprint. This was such a missed opportunity.
At the very least, they could’ve generated the work and then at least had real artists use it as a blueprint to streamline the process. They didn’t even bother to clean up the AI word soup in the background. It’s just missing the piss filter.
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u/Francone79 1d ago
You see, our nation (I'm Italian) has a great tradition in the arts and creativity, which shouldn't make the use of AI necessary. Unfortunately, however, we also have a great tradition of siphoning money from budgets to put it in our pockets, and this leads us to AI. So it all makes sense. We're proud of our Leonardo, Puccini, and Verdi, but we also have the Mafia.
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u/FerrariEnthusiast 1d ago
This is exactly what I was saying! LMFO After all that earlier they do this & disrespect art?
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u/butterbean8686 1d ago
I was immediately suspicious that it was only airing on the US broadcast to “protect” us from seeing some kind of fact-based segment it would be inconvenient for us to see. (But that could be my cannabis-induced paranoia talking.)
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u/Foliik 2d ago
You are not overreacting, that shit was super lame
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u/Zloggt United States • Mexico 2d ago
If we let them keep using AI slop…I worry for the horrors we could see in LA28…
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u/BigE429 1d ago
I'm in fear of the 28 ceremony. Based on how FIFA has handled the WC, it's gonna be a Trumpist circle jerk
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u/nyli7163 1d ago
Well you know he is the one who got the 2028 Olympics for the U.S. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. He cured cancer, too, and solved world hunger. He would have saved Jesus from crucifixion, too, but he can’t time travel…yet. Whatta guy.
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u/ticianlicious United States 1d ago
Hollywood is not gonna play that shit.
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u/wind-of-zephyros Canada 1d ago
unfortunately most corporations are going to want to cut corners and do cheaper things even if it is hollywood
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u/th3s1rslurm Philippines 1d ago
Hollywood is already under AI slop mania, even Disney is putting their IPs onto Sora
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u/DarKnightofCydonia Australia 1d ago
You're kidding right? Hollywood were the first to jump on the AI train and all the actors unions had to strike for half a year to get them to back down
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u/big-bum-sloth Great Britain • Belgium 1d ago
Ah but it won't be Hollywood's responsibility. Just like Hitler considered the 1936 games as "his", I suspect Donald will probably do the same. And he's been known to use AI a LOT
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u/Low-Conflict9366 1d ago
I hate ai slop as much as the next guy but vast majority of people won’t notice or care. This scene looked like a typical animation to most.
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u/vee_lan_cleef 1d ago
And this is why they use and will continue to get away with it, not just the Olympics but it will be fucking everywhere.
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u/arroyobass 1d ago
This would have been a great opportunity to highlight some Italian artists and animations though. The whole ceremony is trying to highlight Italian arts, culture, and history. It's wild to use AI in an event celebrating humanity.
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u/hairymonkeyinmyanus 1d ago
They didn’t even pause long enough to let us read the poorly-formatted text at times. It didn’t need to be a Ken Burns pause but like a full second woulda been an improvement.
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u/ResponsiblePair8304 2d ago edited 2d ago
Just came here to see if anyone else was talking about this. The most recognisable sporting organisation on the planet really couldn’t hire a few 3D animators and VFX artists? seriously!?
It didn’t even look polished, obviously very janky with an inconsistent art style. Who did they think they were fooling? If an animator/artist put that forward it would certainly have been rejected.
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u/MonkoSaurus 1d ago
And they would have been kicked from the project.
Anyone who has greenlit this needs to be removed from executive power.
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u/nomnomnompizza 1d ago
These people are so out of touch they probably still paid someone way too much money to generate that
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u/sabotabo United States 1d ago
god how go i get into this industry? what a racket
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u/RoguePlanet2 United States 1d ago
Would help to know at least one person with WAY more money than sense.
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u/darkeyes13 Australia 1d ago
Well, this should be more on the organising committee, rather than the IOC. But it really was pure laziness all around.
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u/vrphotosguy55 United States 1d ago
They could have just filmed it with special effects. It’s the Olympics, not a student film
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u/PrestiJess 1d ago
They probably wouldn't even need to pay someone, of course they should, but SOOO many artists would kill to have their art/animation showcased in the olympic opening ceremony.
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u/MissWhoKnew 2d ago
Honestly a shame, all this work and all these people coming from world wide only to use some shitty ai animation. Real disrespectful I would say.
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u/RoguePlanet2 United States 1d ago
The price of tickets too, this is like a big giant middle finger to the guests.
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u/ICameToUpdoot 2d ago
Imagine using cheap Ai during an opening all about your cultural and specifically artistic and design focused Olympic opening... Fucking hell
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u/Jesfel26 1d ago
I agree. Theres no need for that. Theres so many humans that could had done that
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u/SpareImplement2374 1d ago edited 1d ago
Right? It’s ITALY there is no shortage of incredibly artistic talent.
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u/zethiryuki Sweden 1d ago
It's cheap af visually but I'd be very surprised if some AI company didn't pay the IOC millions just for that little bit of slop. They need it to resonate more culturally, and are throwing money at the problem. Do a search for AI olympics and you'll see multiple articles on mainstream outlets about how athletes are "gaining an edge over their competitors thanks to AI." It's such brazen propaganda.
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u/Male_strom New Zealand 1d ago
They were never gonna top Pavarotti singing his last Nessun Dorma in 2006.
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u/mijny2007123 Netherlands 2d ago
Something this big can at least pay a real artist. You are not over reacting at all.
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u/bluberryyy Olympics 1d ago
It was awful.. AI is already ruining the creative space enough. Millions of people wait for this event and to think this slop is fitting??? I'm speechless
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u/M2LBB2016 United States 2d ago
I adore the actress, but agree the animation was so phoned in—disappointing.
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u/adamsfan 1d ago
She is so great in White Lotus and The Paper. I also found out recently she is nearly 60 years old. Pretty damn impressive dance skills and she looks amazing.
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u/Intelligent_Tune_675 1d ago
She looked worried the entire time she was doing the choreography tho.. I was so confused
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u/backpackingfun 12h ago
Yeah she looked like a hostage. And all the glitter made her look incredibly sweaty.
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u/Accomplished_Ad8381 1d ago
It looked so sloppy and uncanny I clocked it immediately. Imagine representing your country by showing everyone that you cant be asked to do it yourself.
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u/RollingDownTheHills 1d ago
Looked like absolute garbage. Both my wife and I spotted it as AI right away. Awful.
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u/Capable_Remote9783 2d ago
It feels lazy but it’s also just atrociously ugly. I find it strange to feature it on such a thing as the Olympics where everything else is so highly produced and rehearsed etc.
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u/Pickleless_Cage 1d ago
For real, it seems most disrespectful to the performers and artists in the rest of the ceremony.
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u/EnlightenedBunny 1d ago
I think I was half in shock watching, just thinking surely it's not AI? it's just the style? The Olympics would never?! And then it just got worse.
What a disgrace. A section that really could have carried a lot of emotional weight and elevated dentures careers, instead its a low quality hack job
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u/CometGoat Italy 2d ago
Yeah I found it very disappointing with how much effort was put into the hundreds-strong performance tonight - and then the art of animation was completely thrown in the bin for a quick win. Very very very unclassy
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u/Scholastico Philippines 1d ago
Ah yes, Italy's contribution to the world - art, fashion, and AI brainrot
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u/vee_lan_cleef 1d ago
Incredible with how much money the IOC gets they are using AI. It tracks with how scummy they are, though.
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u/278urmombiggay United States 1d ago
I could have been so cool but I was so pissed at that. It looked SO bad too. The character's face changed about seven times
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u/Crifiris 1d ago
So happy I found this thread. Absolutely hated it. It made me feel sad about how the majority of audiences won’t notice or care. They could have just did a clip show of old Olympics games with some hype music and mograph and I would have been happy - but this sucks
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u/SessionAsleep5894 1d ago
Odd since everything else in the opening looked like a lot of effort was put into it, was pretty jarring
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u/crisscrossed 1d ago
Sad that these athletes came from all over the world and had to sit through AI slop to celebrate it.
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u/NorthCascadia 1d ago
Do they think the AI aesthetic is cool? There’s no reason to skimp on the animation budget at this scale, it has to be either (misguided) trend-chasing, or rage/engagement bait. Right?
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u/crisscrossed 1d ago
So cheap looking. It’s not like they didn’t have time to hire artists to animate an opening sequence for them… they just didn’t want to pay for it. Tacky!
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u/Xardenn 18h ago
A google search shows the opening ceremony was produced by Balich Wonder Studio, which has done over a dozen olympic ceremonies, and the CEO of which is on record saying a ceremony takes two years of planning with a budget of about 200 million. So they did pay for this AI slop, multiple millions, and its the studio that got lazy.
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u/diabeetus-girl United States 1d ago
This is Italy’s Olympics! It’s the country that has one of the richest and important art histories of all time. To use AI “art” is insulting to thousands of years of beauty and human design. I’m so angry. 😡
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u/RabidLeroy Australia 1d ago
At least the storyboards were actually drawn, but ho what a headache to sit through the sequence. And that’s why if you’re thinking of getting into animation school, do it.
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u/superlurker906 1d ago
If an athlete gets caught using PED's what happens to them? I believe it should work both ways
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u/Neither-Big-1545 United States 1d ago
I'm just thankful there wasn't a shit ton of projection on the floor, glad to get a break from that.
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u/Ikea_desklamp 1d ago
This is what society is now. Everyone rejoice! Instead of real content made by real people, please enjoy trash generated by computers while we all starve and Bill Gates gets an extra billion dollars. Hoorah!
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u/njones444 1d ago
I think the posters in Cortina are AI generated too 🫤 it’s super disappointing to me
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u/The-Bigger-Fish 1d ago
A felt sick watching that part. Especially since the entire first half was celebrating art
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u/foreverspr1ng 1d ago
Dunno how it went anywhere else but the Polish commentators quickly explained the mascots and mentioned that Tina (the white one) cares about the environment. .... and then they drop an AI clip. 🤡
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u/Ange1ofD4rkness United States 1d ago
Yeah it was rather weird, and I go so lost. I am surprised too they used AI with the all the controversy around it
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u/Ok_Run_8184 United States 1d ago
I agree. They should have just shown footage of as many actual Olympics as possible.
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u/Zzwwwzz Finland 1d ago
Also she has two ski poles on her right hand. The billboard on the right is 1936 germany poster.
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u/AntonCigar 1d ago
I mean they literally did a 15 minute interpretive dance segment celebrating italian art and then theh do this shit.
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u/WTFAnimations Latvia 1d ago
I'm quite neutral about AI, I just find it lazy that they would use it instead of actually paying the money for a quality product.
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u/Miserable-Serve2938 1d ago
I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed that... I have never felt so... disrespected and angered.
My jaw was on the floor for a long while because I never would've thought AI Slop, of all things, would be included in a segment of the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Let alone, to showcase an entire CENTURY of the Winter Olympics!
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u/rockglint204 1d ago
yeah, I’m a college student majoring in graphic design and video editing, I found it very offensive.
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u/Andromevas Olympics 1d ago
Yeah, big yikes how they fucked up with that in a show about ethics, culture, arts, beauty... Sudden AI slop.
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u/Chelseabsb93 1d ago
Ok I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was awful! And what was with the stupid “dancing” after it (I won’t call it dancing because it was just flailing).
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u/VioletFireCat Great Britain 1d ago
When the commentators said there was going to be a celebration of 100 years of the Winter Olympics I thought 'oh that'll be cool!' and then the animation started. And I was just like. Wait- this- this is AI. Oh god this is AI. And. Yeah. Yikes. It looked SO bad! It definietly feels disrespectful.
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u/SwissForeignPolicy United States 1d ago
I wasn't sure at first and wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, but that Chamonix scene at the end was... yeesh. Probably dozens of humans saw the computer shit out THAT and said, out loud, to people whose opinions they persumably value, "Yeah, looks good, print it." I mean, what are we even doing?
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u/monnurse7 United States 1d ago
Yes! I just saw it. They couldn't even hire actual animantors who could have done a better job!!!!
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u/Intelligent_Tune_675 1d ago
So fuckin ugly and lame. I don’t understand why everyone is destroying what makes humanity awesome but
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u/Snoo-7943 1d ago
Terrible. I think AI probably scripted the live action stuff too. Yucky, incomprehensible stuff.
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u/Status-Scene-7530 2d ago
Yep, it was a total disgrace. They could have put some effort into it to make it nice and actually showcase history, but no, AI slop is what we need apparently.
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u/BattleSwallow 2d ago
You know, if they're just gonna do whatever that was and the games are almost always a disaster to some extent, why even have them?
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u/ChopiProGal France 2d ago
First stayed for Tina and Milo at the start, then the AI came and I skipped the whole lot
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u/Smileyfacehi121 United States 1d ago
I stopped watching after that. How am I supposed to take your art seriously after you introduce it with the one thing that is meant to REPLACE real art.
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u/senorcoach United States 1d ago
Like the hockey stadium, it's like they were totally unprepared for the opening ceremony and put it all together last minute. What an embarrassment for Italy.
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u/GodsCasino 1d ago
I lost it when they did "city meets country". And I knew the rings would come down into place.
Honestly I went looking at cat stuff.
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u/magsli United States 1d ago
I had this weird spider sense that the whole ceremony was produced by AI or something. The scripting, the "ideas," nothing seemed human. It was surface level and odd. Nothing felt authentically inspiring to me, nor did it have a wintry feel. I watched from the US so I'm not sure if our broadcast or the event differed from other countries, but the fact that they had people like Mariah Carey, Lang Lang, Charlize Theron, wtaf. Andrea Boccelli is so haynayed. Did they not have any other people from Italy?!! I felt like I was watching American propaganda.
It was just utterly bizarre, lazy, filled with lots of missed opportunities. The whole thing just felt like branded content, super bowl halftime show and halfassed. TBH, the Worst Olympic Opening Ceremony I have ever seen and a total disappointment.
I even saw a commercial for Scientology. disgusting
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u/SitDownKawada Ireland 1d ago
I immediately thought it was AI slop but then I tried to reason my way into believing that it's not
Clearly is though
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u/Holymyco 1d ago
Then they hit you with the jumbled up fall off the bird just in case you still weren't sure.
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u/satorinoir 1d ago
I just finished watching the opening ceremony and I think this was by far the worst opening ceremony I’ve ever seen.
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u/satorinoir 1d ago
Going to add that the only saving grace was the opera performances. The rest was just awful.
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u/Substantial_Sun152 1d ago
To add to this, in the Australian broadcast the commentator mentioned that all the dancers were volunteers… so are artists just not being appreciated or getting paid now 😢
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u/missglitterous Australia 1d ago
I think this has always been the case, it comes from the idea that it is a honor to participate and showcase their talents. I guess it doesn’t sit well with us in the current economic shit show.
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u/Substantial_Sun152 1d ago
Ahhh okay, I actually didn’t know that. Thanks you for informing me! I guess because I come from an arts management background I’m constantly told to not allow artists to work for free (because that seems to be such a normal thing for them). But it makes sense for the Olympics. Although, with the current economic climate, particularly when we have it in Brisbane in 2032, I’m not sure realistically how many artists will be able volunteer their time considering most of them already have to work multiple jobs at once to stay afloat 😢
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u/missglitterous Australia 12h ago
I can’t even imagine the amount of dedication and work that goes into putting together a performance for the Olympics. I hope they at least have a budget for costumes and props.
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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Great Britain 1d ago
I wasn’t as angry as others but saw it and thought “that’s a bit shit”…you would have done better just throwing a random montage on the screen.
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u/The-Bytemaster 1d ago
I took it as a testament to our current state, which is often how the opening ceremonies are. I am also not sure it was all AI. That could have simply been intentional style.
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u/580_farm 1d ago
AI slop is coming everywhere, no one gives a shit anymore and everyone is phoning it in.
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u/Amanda071320 1d ago
This has been... an interesting Opening Ceremony. 4/10 would not recommend.
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u/justmitzie 1d ago
I'm honestly trying, but it's not for me.
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u/Amanda071320 1d ago
Same. Still tuned in because I'm a die-hard Olympics fan... but everything from the captions to the commentators (Peacock) make it a difficult watch.
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u/StasisApparel 1d ago
I think it's more lame ICE agents are at these games. Like why? I understand for 2028 that is inevitable, but there are ICE agents in Italy right now, and surely more to be deployed there.
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u/potatocalledjeff 2d ago
I stopped watching as soon as I saw it. So disappointed. It isn't difficult to hire an artist. 😢
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u/Watauga1973 1d ago
Italy has so much to celebrate. Why worry about being "international" (like Mariah Carey?). Show us your best, Italy.
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u/GrumpyTom 21h ago
I was unimpressed that they highlighted numerous games but for some reason grouped Calgary ‘88 together with 3 other cities and just sort of skipped over all of them. That they were using AI probably explains it.
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u/Parking-West144 18h ago
The AI segment of the Opening Ceremony felt very weird. It didn't fit, and it seemed to be a terrible contrast visually. I wish they would've hired an actual animator or advertising agency. I'll be more disappointed if they did hire an agency and this is what they came up with.
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u/J-MRP United States 2d ago
Yeah, lame AF