Content creator Kayne Kawasaki is raising concerns about what he describes as the AI-driven counterfeiting of Black creativity, using a viral trend popularised by Baby Shanz as an example of how original creators can be overshadowed by artificial intelligence-generated imitations.
In a video addressing the issue, Kawasaki said an AI-generated version of the trend had accumulated more than 18 million views at the time of his recording, while Baby Shanz’s original video had approximately 1.7 million views.
He also pointed to another AI-generated version that he said had surpassed five million views, again receiving significantly more attention than the original.
Kawasaki stressed that his criticism was not directed at the normal practice of creators participating in or drawing inspiration from viral trends.
“There’s seemingly nothing wrong with creators taking inspiration from viral trends. That’s how internet culture works,” he said.
However, Kawasaki argued that there is an important distinction between inspiration and what he described as “extraction.”
He said Baby Shanz had not been tagged in the viral AI-generated video despite people mentioning the original creator in the comments.
Kawasaki’s wider concern is that generative AI can allow accounts to reproduce ideas, performances and cultural expressions created by real people while potentially attracting greater engagement than those who originated them.
He said the example involving Baby Shanz was not isolated and argued that the situation reflects a broader problem surrounding the reproduction and commercialisation of Black creativity without adequate recognition of its origins.
Kawasaki also challenged audiences to consider their role in determining which content becomes successful.
“Sometimes we don’t even recognise that what we’re watching is AI-generated,” he said.
He argued that viewers can sometimes become more fascinated by an imitation than the original work, particularly when familiar elements of Black culture appear in unexpected contexts.
“And what happens when we do that? The algorithm rewards the imitation,” Kawasaki said.
His comments raise a growing question surrounding generative AI and social media: what happens when artificially generated content based closely on an existing creator’s idea attracts substantially more attention than the human-created original?
Kawasaki urged social media users to be more conscious before liking, sharing and reposting content, encouraging audiences to consider where an idea originated and whether their engagement is benefiting the person responsible for the original creativity.
He ultimately reduced his message to three words: “Creativity over counterfeit.”
The view counts referenced by Kawasaki were those he reported at the time of his recording and can change as the videos continue circulating online.
Article and image source: instagram.com