# "Transformation" acts from British talent show **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show, ai\ **Created:** [December 23, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035 "2024-12-23T00:08:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/1 "2024-12-23T00:08:56Z")
For a few days I’ve been seeing short clips, apparently from the British version of “X Got Talent” where a woman is transformed into something else, like a bird-woman or a tiger-woman or whatever. It looks to me impossible to explain with ‘normal’ magic tricks, such as stage magicians have used since forever. My best guess is that what we’re seeing is AI computer art. As in, maybe the woman is onstage wearing a nude colored body suit, and there is a glass panel/screen between her and the audience/camera location, and somehow all the details are actually a video projected by a computer while the woman at most does a memorized routine of turning in place or waving her arms to synchronize her with the video. Or, for that matter, maybe she isn’t even there at all, and it’s just a projected video. Am I right? If so, isn’t this stretching the limits of claiming this act is a display of talent at all? I mean, would they allow an act that consists of a lovely woman standing there lip synching while they play a recording made by some genuinely gifted singer? How about if one of those “isn’t this eight year old a humongous talent” when, again, she just lip synchs or fiddles her fingers on a piano or violin while they play music from some non-photogenic musician? If I do this right, here’s a link to a [sample](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YSuNwlHKjOU) . ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/2 "2024-12-23T00:44:05Z")
Do _you_ know how to set up the stage lights and the AI and the choreography and screens and mirrors and the DMX and so on and have it work seamlessly? If you did, surely you would agree it takes talent? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/3 "2024-12-23T00:52:17Z")
Evidently it looked real enough to the judges to seem believeable, which is what a “magic” act is supposed to do without using actual magic. Seems a bit off to me too, though. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/4 "2024-12-23T01:55:42Z")
Oh dear. None of that is even slightly real. That is an AI generated video, spliced in with reaction shots from a completely different source. That is not worth anybody’s time. AI is a scourge across the internet as it infests what used to be real footage of real things, and now is just turning it into garbage that even intelligent humans seem willing to believe. My recommendation is to be more vigilant, as all generative AI needs to be buried. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/5 "2024-12-23T03:22:19Z")
I’ve seen the clip the op is mentioning and GuanoLad is right on. Just AI crap taking up space. Between that and fake movie trailers you can’t trust anything on a first glance anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/6 "2024-12-23T03:25:36Z")
Wow, that’s not even very good AI. Half the time the macaw is sprouting a second head out of its wing. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/7 "2024-12-23T09:02:07Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > That is an AI generated video, spliced in with reaction shots from a completely different source. Precisely this. It might as well be a video that intercuts footage of JFK’s moon speech with shots taken from the lightsaber battle at the end of _Phantom Menace._ ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/8 "2024-12-23T09:57:20Z")
A red flag might also be that the account that posted this is called ‘AImagicfuse’. Also, the anatomy of the woman is not even consistent—when she does her turn, her behind suddenly becomes her stomach. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/9 "2024-12-23T11:36:57Z")
Have you seen this AI gymnastics video? [https://youtu.be/YwJIYj3hPAU?si=faIGc30PplbmavGq](https://youtu.be/YwJIYj3hPAU?si=faIGc30PplbmavGq) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/10 "2024-12-23T12:09:25Z")
Yeah. This is what’s commonly known as ‘AI slop’ and whilst some of it can be momentarily interesting or distracting a lot of it is just like a disease that is virulently infecting online video platforms. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/11 "2024-12-23T13:52:04Z")
Hey, it’s not very polite to laugh at some poor girl being painfully contorted into a series of eldritch abominations before finally being folded out of the dimensions of our spacetime entirely. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/12 "2024-12-23T14:06:59Z")
Are you talking about something like this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calBAFcblwQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calBAFcblwQ)? This seems like a legitimate (non-AI) example of what you are talking about where dancers / contortionists are wearing bodysuits with lighting and background sets to make them look like iguanas and macaws and whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/13 "2024-12-23T16:17:08Z")
Just pay attention to her hands. Or the way her head rotates one way while her body goes the other way, or the fact that her arms can’t decide which shoulders they want to attach to, or that the bird isn’t the same damn shape from one moment to the next. There is no woman on stage; there is no live footage here (I don’t even know if I believe the intercut of Simon Cowell is real or generated). The video is the fever-dream of an algorithm - the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/14 "2024-12-23T16:40:15Z")
The YouTube channel Scared Ketchup has had a couple of videos recently where he and another guy discuss some of SK’s outtakes where the AI does really bizarre things. Perhaps NSFW so link blurred. → [Link](https://www.youtube.com/@scaredketchup/videos). ← The OP’s video is so ridiculously fake I am surprised anyone would take it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/15 "2024-12-23T16:53:05Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The OP’s video is so ridiculously fake I am surprised anyone would take it seriously. I think the problem is that, if you haven’t been closely following the development of generative AI, the video doesn’t look like something that could just have been vomited out of a computer in its entirety. Despite being a steaming heap of garbage, It’s _too good_ to fit with some people’s expectations for what a computer generated video could attain, or at least _some of the details_ are too good or too realistic-seeming to fit that. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/16 "2024-12-23T17:03:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > The OP’s video is so ridiculously fake I am surprised anyone would take it seriously. I have heard tales that when movies were first invented, somebody filmed a locomotive arriving at the station. Upon seeing the train seeminly approaching them, the audience ran out of the theater. I never saw any reason to question those stories. When the wonderful fim Tron came out, there many many news stories on how the general look of the film was achieved and how the actual CGI was done. In the sixties and seventies, many people had a feeling that science was just about to prove, measure, and harness psychic abilities. When I first saw Bonsai Cat, I thought it was funny and shared it with a friend. She messaged me “It’s not real, is it?” It is a brave new world. I still have my Dad’s desktop computer from 1974. In the nineties, we had the aniversary of ENIAC. An article on the subject said 'Today a computer chip to perform the same functions as ENIAC would be the size of a dime and cost under a nickel." We have come very far very fast. If somebody cannot quite keep up, they deserve understanding and a helping hand. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2024, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transformation-acts-from-british-talent-show/1012035/17 "2024-12-23T17:43:20Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > As in, maybe the woman is onstage wearing a nude colored body suit, and there is a glass panel/screen between her and the audience/camera location, and somehow all the details are actually a video projected by a computer while the woman at most does a memorized routine of turning in place or waving her arms to synchronize her with the video. Or, for that matter, maybe she isn’t even there at all, and it’s just a projected video. Am I right? [Pepper’s Ghost?](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost)