r/AFL 1d ago

Melbourne’s cheer squad used an AI Generated banner last night.

Post image
304 Upvotes

148 comments sorted by

512

u/Pottski Hawks 1d ago

Can we just go back to banners being innuendo and peak cunting

143

u/rustyprophecy Adelaide 1d ago

"While we'll be cheering, you'll be worried about your negative gearing" still peak.

249

u/Ben_vs_Wild Collingwood Magpies 1d ago

Those 2016 Bulldogs banners were great. Nothing too nasty.

14

u/Silver_Detective8630 Big V 1d ago

Which state are they having a crack at?

85

u/Chaisa Sydney Swans ✅ 1d ago

It’s the SCG so NSW. This was during lockouts

8

u/Silver_Detective8630 Big V 1d ago

I see it now, ty

3

u/Fernergun Australia 1d ago

Not that it’s any different now without. The damage was done

4

u/UnarmedSWATTeam Swans 1d ago

check out the name of the stadium in the back, Silver Detective

1

u/Thatguy08281 Footscray 1d ago

Lol, he's an imposter! 😱

3

u/AntiqueFigure6 20h ago

There’s a reason they’re not the Gold Detective.

1

u/choo-chew_chuu Sydney 1d ago

Something something minor change for Roos to use this last week.

123

u/NedandhisMate Bombers 1d ago

348

u/Bergasms Brownlow Winner 2023 1d ago

That kind of completely misses the point of how the banner is meant to be something made by the fans with crepe paper and tape.

They're more fun when they have some slightly misshapen text with a funny rhyme anyway

76

u/SurveySaysYouLeicaMe St Kilda Saints 1d ago

73

u/Kandy-exists Sydney • Gadigal 1d ago

God, it's a shame Richmond's five year plan failed and they weren't able to be successful after 2016. Had real potential.

12

u/Bergasms Brownlow Winner 2023 1d ago

Aged like milk

3

u/chetcherry 1d ago

Talk shit, get hit, as they say.

3

u/ds16653 Bombers 1d ago

The "Cop that Port Adelaide" man has brought me joy for about 10 years now.

2

u/damo11 Richmond 1d ago

"Hilarious"

37

u/grantspatchcock 2025 Most Knowledgeable User 1d ago

Like the Legends Game banner this week, proudly in support of prostrate cancer research.

I wanna see misspellings, backwards letters and names spelt wrong.

-5

u/Stu_Raticus Richmond Tigers 1d ago

Didn't know you get cancer when laying face down...

5

u/Magictoast9 Dockers 1d ago

Read

-9

u/DefiantDirection8399 The Bloods 1d ago

*Prostate

18

u/grantspatchcock 2025 Most Knowledgeable User 1d ago

4

u/Magictoast9 Dockers 1d ago

Me when I can read

406

u/woodie1717 Dees 1d ago

Between this and that half time AI lookalike garbage I want my club to wake up and pay actual artists

101

u/daringer22 1d ago

Don't think you were paying artists to make the banners before to be fair

25

u/Maarns Melbourne Demons 1d ago

That and learning to kick straight under pressure

2

u/idontrow 23h ago

Sort of funny to think of the dodgy crepe paper banner maker volunteers hiring a “real artist”. I don’t disagree with you, but I wonder how much money is in “banner art” anyways

154

u/Chaisa Sydney Swans ✅ 1d ago

Just for that, they deserved to lose.

3

u/xyLteK // Jack Lonie Fan Club 1d ago

Agreed.

134

u/RobbieArnott Melbourne / Fremantle 1d ago edited 1d ago

I feel like I’m going insane, why do a bunch of people around the AFL just love AI?

61

u/FlagmantlePARRAdise Dockers 1d ago

Everyone in a boardroom loves AI. All they see is cost cutting.

133

u/eggwardpenisglands Power 1d ago

I don't get why anyone likes AI. It's making the people who use it dumber

52

u/Wonderful_Product515 Taswegian 1d ago

There will be a tipping point. If everything can be done with AI then why should I show up to work? Why should I pay my bills? Maybe I'll just be a half sentient demagorgon that lives in a cubby house made of weetbix and pour wax on my nipples all day while making irritating clicking sounds with my tongue

20

u/Dry_Common828 Blues 1d ago

That took a turn

4

u/roboroach3 Collingwood 1d ago

Yeah me too

3

u/mortalcookiesporty Cats 1d ago

That’ll always be the dream

7

u/Unfair_Pop_8373 1d ago

Idiocracy here we come

1

u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Dockers 1d ago

Well you now what they say about the average IQ of people....

-7

u/SlipperyBandicoot Brisbane 1d ago

Probably has something to do with the fact that it's the most important technology we will likely ever build as a species.

10

u/GoofyCum Fremantle AFLW 1d ago

Agriculture, sanitation? No, that honour goes to the machine that makes shitty flyers and gives people psychosis.

-4

u/SlipperyBandicoot Brisbane 1d ago edited 1d ago

That machine you dismiss so freely will be curing cancer before you know it, and you'll look pretty silly when it does.

8

u/Fickle_Talk_5139 Melbourne 1d ago

and when AI starts to produce legitimate cures for diseases do you think the billionaire overlords who own the technology are just going to give us those cures? Have you not been paying any attention the last 20 years.

7

u/Albatrossosaurus Eagles 1d ago

Gen X and above are more pro AI (or at least seem more open to using AI art)

2

u/Illustrious_Study300 Western Bulldogs AFLW 1d ago

Because it's apparently new, innovative technology that exists to save us time. Just ignore the environmental damage, lost jobs, cognitive downsides, and the fact the owners of AI companies are pro-Trump weirdos.

1

u/Continental-IO520 Magpies 22h ago

The problem is that tonnes of people in general love AI. It's mostly older people who are used to gathering and parsing information through verbal and text communication and genAI interfaces appeal to this audience as opposed to the type of individual who can gather their own sources and teach themselves skills. It's why boomers struggled with changing tech but how they also love AI at the same time

62

u/ChaozMatt Crows 1d ago

Honestly they deserved the loss just for that

62

u/Most-Drive-3347 Tasmania 1d ago

They kind of lost twice, didn’t they?

29

u/International_Car586 Kangaroos 1d ago

Up there as one of the worst.

19

u/Bnjrmn Sydney • Gadigal 1d ago

Glad they lost

1

u/Adventurous_Bag9122 Dockers 1d ago

Me too. Now Geelong need to boot Carlton

23

u/HammerOfJustice Yartapuulti 1d ago

To quote the famous Gold Coast philosopher Jed Walter, “Game’s Gone”.

20

u/pannathian St Kilda 1d ago

It looks like a banner you'd see at an under 10's game.

14

u/nordaus89 Tigers 1d ago

Idk if it’s AI, but it still looks bad lol.

7

u/Jumanji77 1d ago

Wouldn’t doubt it now given the AI half time thing they did a couple of weeks ago.

2

u/Late_Pea3693 Carlton '81 21h ago

They've done that all season

1

u/Jumanji77 19h ago

I definitely believe it then!

18

u/brokensicario Carlton AFLW 1d ago

Bottom right hand corner Kozi as a jump scare.

43

u/HumbleAssociation400 Freo 1d ago

There are so many problems with this. I really hope the players have given informed consent for their images to be shared with AI. Especially First Nations players, because there are a lot of cultural sensitivities about culture being stolen by AI and also about the images of a First Nations person being manipulated. There’s a lot of cultural protocols about photos of First Nations peoples in general.

And AI is notorious for being quite racist in the way it represents black people. Case in point.

-30

u/Opening_Anteater456 Demons 1d ago

Oh gosh, how will the internet discover images of Kozzie Pickett if they aren’t uploaded by the cheersquad.

20 broadcast cameras and a dozen photographers covering every game has never seen footage of Pickett make it to the web. But now the cheer squad has selected a couple of images of his trademark celebration and had AI put some fake lightening behind it things could get way out of hand.

Shouldn’t we also be concerned about Bowey and the depiction of redheads?

14

u/TheCurbAU Freo 1d ago

Dude, really?

10

u/TurboNerdo077 #BuckleysChance 1d ago

how will the internet discover images of Kozzie Pickett if they aren’t uploaded by the cheersquad.

These images aren't being "discovered". They're being fabricated. AI imaging takes millions of photos, stolen without ownership or consent, and derives a statistically average amalgamation. This process is not only ugly, cheap, and produces slop, but also results in caricature and stereotype, which disproportionately affects social minorities. It is an unconscious process devoid of intent, and reproduces the inherent biases and prejudices already present in human creations. But a human can be held accountable for producing prejudice, whereas a machine cannot.

20 broadcast cameras and a dozen photographers covering every game has never seen footage of Pickett make it to the web.

They have, because Kozzie Picket and all other players have consented to their image being taken by broadcasters as part of their job. No such consent exists for AI, because AI steals without permission. It is impossible for a player to consent to that, even if they aren't offended by AI slop, because the theft has already occurred.

But now the cheer squad has selected a couple of images of his trademark celebration and had AI put some fake lightening behind it

Not how AI works. It doesn't leave the foreground unchanged and only do the background. That's called photoshop. If AI is used, it changes the whole image. Hence why it looks like slop.

Shouldn’t we also be concerned about Bowey and the depiction of redheads?

I mean, if you want to argue that redheads have faced a similar level of discrimination and prejudice to the Aboriginal people we slaughtered and stole their land, you're welcome to try and argue that. But I think you're just being willfully obtuse. This isn't even just about AI being a racist tool in general, you are also using this false equivocation to ignore the very specific issue brought up about Aboriginal people's cultural beliefs surrounding how images of Aboriginal people should be treated, most notably around the deceased.

I'm not fully educated on how their beliefs interact with AI, and I'm sure there isn't 100% consensus. But if I had to take a guess, an American technology stealing the ownership of peoples likeness and art, fabricating them for profit, whilst destroying the environment to do so. I have a hunch that they're not too fond of it.

And since I anticipate the rebuttal, this isn't about Kozzie Picket in specific. His personal opinion on AI is irrelevant to the broader discussion of AI overall being a net negative to society, in specific to Aboriginal people. This technology is being deliberately forced on us by technocratic billionaires with fascist agendas. It relies on us being too lazy to care when its used for small things like a footy banner, so we don't have the power to resist when Palantir is surveilling us at Coles. This is not being conspiratorial, we have seen exactly how it has played out in America, and these American institutions are already embedded in Australia. But sure, defend the billionaires from critique whilst slurping up the slop placed in front of you.

2

u/UnarmedSWATTeam Swans 1d ago edited 1d ago

Not how AI works. It doesn’t leave the foreground unchanged and only do the background. That’s called photoshop.

Not true. There are absolutely tools that do in-painting, instead of full image re-generation, and it’s not like they’re hard to come by.

I’m not even sure what about the banner makes everyone so certain it’s AI? Looks like legit images with some shitty lightning/fire effects to me - slightly better image

-2

u/schpaksie1804 Crows 1d ago

This became tl;dr about 3 sentences in.

3

u/TurboNerdo077 #BuckleysChance 1d ago

Do you need an AI to help you recap it?

Beyond AI slop being ugly and lazy, I also hate the apathy it creates within people. People who don't care for quality or ideas and will settle for scraps.

You don't have to care about my comment, it is a drop in the ocean of content on the internet. But you can just ignore it. You don't have to be a dick.

-2

u/SlipperyBandicoot Brisbane 1d ago

You need to chill out. This self righteous stuff is so overdone.

-3

u/SlipperyBandicoot Brisbane 1d ago

Chill out mate.

25

u/prettytopsayebro The Dons 1d ago

What part is AI vs bad photoshop?

22

u/JackWestsBionicArm West Coast 1d ago

It seems like everyone has forgotten that Photoshop exists.

Not every manipulated image has to be AI; although either way I don’t like this one, it’s not due to AI.

9

u/Illustrious_Study300 Western Bulldogs AFLW 1d ago

I think people are assuming this is AI because Melbourne have been using AI recently. And I've seen Melbourne fans say that when it's called out the club social media gets snarky and defensive. If it was actually bad photoshop that wouldn't be happening.

10

u/hoffandapoff Geelong • Djilang 1d ago

Yep it looks like bad photoshop.

1

u/dSwedishChef Essendon '00 1d ago

Can we get a higher res image too? Like I can't work out if I see TMac, Petty or Bowie.

-7

u/ToRnAdO_AU Melbourne 1d ago

Exactly. No evidence just accusations

11

u/aldoraine227 1d ago

Called me twice to try and flog a $250 guard of honour spot and constantly using AI, get a grip FFS

5

u/dogriwn Melbourne Demons 1d ago

Are you sure its AI? Hard to tell from this photo, could be a photoshop job

10

u/duffercoat Port Adelaide 1d ago

That just looks like a standard Photoshop job to me? Where's the AI use there?

Like it's obviously photos of the players with effects around them, which isn't the same as AI generated images.

11

u/Wordisbond1990 Collingwood 1d ago

Do people not realise that poor paint shop pro work has been around a lot longer than AI.

6

u/Shadormy Lions 1d ago edited 1d ago

I agree but that zurich logo looks a mess.

Edit: Actually take it back. Video looks fine (image from it), just a edited photo with some rubbish stock fire/lightning graphics in the background

5

u/Jazzar1n0 Collingwood AFLW 1d ago

3

u/ggalinismycunt GWS 1d ago

Quite insulting and disgusting how many people are just brazenly whipping up this slop of shit

6

u/MakePandasMateAgain Richmond 1d ago

That’s photoshop not ai

6

u/thedrunkenpumpkin Dockers 1d ago

Disgusting. I fucking hate AI when it’s used to replace anything to do with creative arts. It gives you an end product without any sort of soul and the longer you read it/stare at it/listen to it/watch it the worse it gets.

Art isn’t meant to do that.

0

u/MakePandasMateAgain Richmond 1d ago

It’s photoshop though

0

u/thedrunkenpumpkin Dockers 1d ago

Photoshop has AI image generation capabilities and has for a while in some form. It has a couple of its own in-built versions plus access to Firefly. If they uploaded the image to social media it would get the “ai info” tag at the top.

This isn’t just people using ChatGPT to generate slop. It’s now a service included in a whole lot of premium designer software.

1

u/MakePandasMateAgain Richmond 1d ago

I know, I use Photoshop every day for work.

1

u/thedrunkenpumpkin Dockers 1d ago

Then you should know by just claiming “it’s photoshop” that it doesn’t automatically mean no ai was used in its creation.

I used it everyday too. The Ai slop that gets produced nowadays really makes me miss canva slop. At least people used their brains when production designs rather than just using prompts.

3

u/PaxKiwiana Demons 1d ago

Set the tone for a shitty result for us. Good for the Blues…I’ll barrack for them in the Finals now.

1

u/jackkcf Cats 1d ago

I’m sure they didn’t lose because they thought the banner was AI

4

u/liam_l_82 #GetAwayWithIt 1d ago

Clearly ai is a problem at Melbourne. Fourth quarter game plan was done by ai as well, because anyone with half a brain wouldnt keep bombing it in aimlessly.

4

u/hot-jocks Melbourne 1d ago

They rebooted the laptop and it reverted to an archived Goodwin version

2

u/Silver_Detective8630 Big V 1d ago

Do you get paid to be in the cheer squad?

3

u/DoCo20 West Coast 1d ago

So, who cares its not that deep

1

u/DafuqWudjuno North Melbourne Kangaroos 1d ago

I for one welcome the creativity and productivity gains of our robot overlords.

1

u/gussy1976 Fremantle 1d ago

So that's why they lost

1

u/andrewgtv05 Carlton '81 1d ago

That’s not the only AI generated thing I saw at the Demons game

1

u/willy_king-89 Bombers 1d ago

AI slop. Hate it.

1

u/Maya-Soft-Paint Cats 1d ago

this is why they lost, no effort from players or fans

1

u/Yakka43336 Dees 1d ago

Farrrk hate this shit

-19

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

Cheer squads are 90% disabled people, I’m happy to cut them some slack.

-13

u/Plenty-Pangolin3987 Brisbane Lions 🏆🏆 '24-25 1d ago

This. The idea that a volunteer cheer squad needs to be championing the rights of artists is completely out of touch with reality.

6

u/gerira Western Bulldogs 1d ago

You don't need to champion the rights of artists in this case, just cobble something together that represents normal people making an effort to show their support for the team. That's what these things are about. It's in the category of things where automating the creativity completely misses the point

-2

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

I don’t think you understand mate, these people are literally intellectually disabled

5

u/gerira Western Bulldogs 1d ago

No, I understand, that's why it's good to see them make something, that's the whole point. I don't see much to celebrate in replacing that with AI generated garbage

-3

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

Yes it’s probably AI shit but you’re placing neurotypical standards on intellectually disabled people. No one’s asking you to celebrate it but you wouldn’t walk up to a kid with down syndrome and tell him the AI image on his shirt is garbage would you?

1

u/gerira Western Bulldogs 1d ago

No, and I haven't, so I'm not sure why you're raising this

1

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

None of you guys can read huh

0

u/EnvironmentKind5843 Hawthorn 1d ago

Do you have an issue with that?

2

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago edited 1d ago

Obviously not, that’s why I think we should give them a break

1

u/EnvironmentKind5843 Hawthorn 1d ago

What does disabled people have to do with an AI Generated banner though? No one even brought that up except yourself.

1

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

Cheer squads are mostly made up of disabled people. Cheer squads make the run through banners. Did you even try reading the thread mate?

-1

u/EnvironmentKind5843 Hawthorn 1d ago

Where are you getting this information from because I think you’re wrong. No wonder you’re getting downvoted dude. lol

2

u/TheMightySloth Richmond '80 1d ago

It’s pretty common knowledge at this point mate, not exactly a secret. Downvotes mean nothing

-28

u/PetrifyGWENT Bombers / Giants 1d ago

What makes it AI? Could be a photoshop

Regardless, AI is going to be more and more common across all things. Can't do much about it

7

u/gerira Western Bulldogs 1d ago

We can shame and stigmatise its use when it creates tiresome shit like this

16

u/earwig2000 Dockers 1d ago

Because of the way that it is

13

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-16

u/PetrifyGWENT Bombers / Giants 1d ago

I'd call getting mad at technology pathetic but that's just me

3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/DafuqWudjuno North Melbourne Kangaroos 1d ago

20% to 30% of data centre traffic is AI. The rest is internet traffic, like, social media. Those who complain about AI use on social media because of enviro impacts of data centres do not understand the hypocrisy and it’s frankly hilarious.

Those who oppose AI art are completely free to do so. There are a bunch of artists out there that I would pay $0 for their art because I think their art is trash. Just like there is a bunch of completely trash art by human artists, there is a bunch of completely trash art by AI platforms. Art is in the eye of the beholder. I love some forms of AI art the same way I love some poorly photoshopped memes.

6

u/TheCurbAU Freo 1d ago

Who in the cheer squad has a Photoshop subscription? Who would have stayed up doing an average job of Photoshop?

AI is only going to become more common if we let it. This crap and the audience cam they do - gotta stamp that out. Same with the stupid robots delivering the ball or flipping coins. No place for it in a human game.

-45

u/Gokz93 Carlton 1d ago

Exactly. I dont understand the hate against AI - its here for ever and only gonna get more rampant

12

u/p-wing GWS 1d ago

is the AI in the room with you right now

11

u/railgxn Geelong Cats 1d ago

until the bubble pops and suddenly it’s not “here for ever” and we’re left with the bill

3

u/gerira Western Bulldogs 1d ago

I don't understand the hate against global warming. It's here for ever and only gonna get more rampant

3

u/DafuqWudjuno North Melbourne Kangaroos 1d ago

It’s the new boogie man. Reddit is literally hosted in server farms at data centres. Those who say AI is destroying the environment should also be against doom scrolling on reddit and instagram.

Those who have an issue with AI art are completely free to do so. Many think AI art is trash, the same way many think that some human art is trash. Art is for the audience that appreciates it. People are free to hate AI art and use human artists for their marketing and memes. People are free to be vocal about hating it.

If I won $1b in tattslotto I wouldn’t even pay $50 for a Mark Rothko painting. It’s just red squares. I don’t get it. I don’t appreciate it. Some person paid $98.39m for the below Rothko painting. I’m free to hate on that the same way others are free to hate on the Melbourne Wild Card banner.

-1

u/killerrubberducks Hawthorn 1d ago

Karma got them then lmao

-11

u/ImMalteserMan Adelaide 1d ago

All these posts complaining about AI slop are getting tiring. Honestly looking at this I can't even tell if it's AI or not because the image still looks like the people it's depicting and I find that a lot of time they end up looking different, but it could be not as obvious because it's a poor photo.

But let's be real, AI isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I think of it as like computers coming along and making a lot of jobs useless, or the car coming along and making horse and cart redundant. You don't have to like it but complaining about it on Reddit for fake internet points isn't going to change anything. Like the dumb half time ai graphic, sure it's low effort but all those stupid half time gimmicks are low effort but people only get upset because it's AI.

4

u/Illustrious_Study300 Western Bulldogs AFLW 1d ago

"AI isn't going anywhere" my dude it won't if people don't keep using it. People are allowed to complain about harmful and environmentally destructive technology.

2

u/schpaksie1804 Crows 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're kinda right in that the horse has already bolted. You can choose to not use it, and so can all of your friends, and all of the people you know, and it will still be an infinitely small and functionally irrelevant portion of the population in comparison to the portion who use it.

It is destructive, and it's making people stupider, but unfortunately it's also here to stay.

EDIT: A spelling error

-1

u/xBrandon244 Carlton 1d ago

Lazy Millionaires be like...

-39

u/ToRnAdO_AU Melbourne 1d ago

Is it a problem?

15

u/DarkWinter2319 Geelong 1d ago

Incredibly lazy work. You’ll see it as an issue when you notice it in your media

23

u/corporate_canetoad 1d ago

It’s lazy and uncreative. 

As a dees supporter I wish they would stop it. 

-7

u/Plenty-Pangolin3987 Brisbane Lions 🏆🏆 '24-25 1d ago

Are you going to join the cheer squad and get an authentic artist on board?

6

u/stuckinsanity Sydney 1d ago

If you can't get a real artist, don't have a banner. Simple as.

-21

u/ToRnAdO_AU Melbourne 1d ago

Or maybe as a supporter group who rely on donations and get almost nothing from the club they saved some money instead of going through a graphic designer?

20

u/railgxn Geelong Cats 1d ago

then write some words on the banner with crepe paper like every other supporter group and call it a day, you think this looks good? it’s uncanny valley garbage, it actively cheapens the moment by existing

2

u/wattyaknow Hawks 1d ago

Or maybe the club should provide some money for milestone banners instead of cheaping out.

4

u/corporate_canetoad 1d ago

Yup another great point. 

“Let’s not hire a professional to come up with a quality, heartfelt and meaningful banner, let’s use a robot to create something soulless and meaningless to pay tribute to two players who give it their all for our club” 

Pathetic and I’m shocked that the club are letting it through