The Avatar movie—blue arrows, not blue people—cannot catch a break. Avatar Aang, the new animated feature detailing the exploits of the airbender and his now grown and sexy friends, hit Paramount+ and (extremely) select theaters over the weekend. The film’s release has been marred by an online leak of the entire movie and Paramount’s unwillingness to give it a theatrical release wider than two screens on opposite coasts. But now there’s another murky controversy that threatens an already dampened premiere—whether or not genAI was used in the film’s production.
The accusation stems from an Avatar panel that took place during San Diego Comic-Con. Attendees were drawn to a slide in the presentation that featured a quote from ChatGPT commenting on East Asian facial hair tradition. The quote was part of a larger section explaining the design process for creating the airbender Tagah, one of the new characters in the movie. The quote read, “Also according to chatgpt, ‘In general it is not common for South East Asian cultures to emphasize or traditionally have a strong association with beards. Traditionally valued a c [sic] clean-shaven appearance or minimal facial hair grooming.’”
The photo of the slide was widely circulated, incurring immediate backlash from fans who called into question how or if genAI was used at all in the process of making Avatar Aang. That chatter reached one of the artists who worked on the movie, Kat Tsai, who posted a response on Bluesky denying its use in the art or design process.
When asked for clarification on why ChatGPT was mentioned at all, Tsai posted a follow-up response saying, “I have no clue why it was on that slide or who put it there, and every member of the crew I worked with is 100% against AI.”
While it seems like Avatar Aang‘s art can be marked safe from genAI, the mere whiff of ChatGPT’s stink this close to the movie calls into question the rest of its production. Was it used to create marketing materials, or during the script-writing phase? There were unconfirmed rumors that the blurb in the slide came from a source totally unrelated to the movie production team and that this is all a totally reasonable but unfortunate circumstance of guilt by association. Kotaku has reached out to Paramount and Tsai for further clarification of how or if any kind of genAI was used.
