Twitter Enraged After Engineer Uses AI To Race Swap 'The Little Mermaid' Trailer

Jadriena Solomon
·2 min read
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An Islamic engineer with a doctorate in computer vision is now under fire after using AI to race-swap The Little Mermaid trailer.

According to Memebase, a now-suspended Twitter account with the handle @vandalibm unveiled the clip to users. Halle Bailey’s appearance was altered to now appear as a “white ginger” woman.

“Credits to our memer Artificial intelligence scientist @TenGazillion IQ,” it wrote in the clip’s caption. “He fixed The Little Mermaid and turned the woke actor into a ginger white girl.”

“He says he can do fix the whole movie when it comes out with 4x A60000 in 24 hours,” the caption continued. “It’s over for wokecels.”

Shortly after, the Twitter account added a “note.”

“This is purely for educational purposes, please do not misinterpret this in a racist way,” it said.

The account owner, whose full name was listed as Jesse (Gesi) Moriarty Erhard, added that they were just “amazed” by their “high-IQ friend” and “wanted to show people his field of study.”

Although the original tweets have been removed, it didn’t stop the video from making its rounds on Twitter. And ultimately enraging users.

“Yea, nah! We’re good with @HalleBailey as she is, in all her black and brown glory, thanks!” wrote one user.

“What the freshly baked f**k,” added another user. “It looks awful.”

“This is downright disrespectful for whoever was responsible for this!!” another user wrote. “What is the problem with us having something to cherish as well? Why even put that out there for damn near the world to see?!! Such a slap in the face!!”

As reported by Unilad, the trailer has already come under fire from some that feel the live-action adaptation should also be played by a white actor, since the original film featured a white Ariel.

However, the response hasn’t been all negative.

As Blavity previously reported, the trailer has done an astounding job at making young Black girls feel seen, with many parents sharing heartwarming, first-time reaction videos of their children watching the trailer for the first time, on TikTok.