What Is True Detective: Night Country’s AI Poster Controversy?

The deployment of AI-generated art in film and television reliably kicks up a hornet’s nest of controversy. Let’s explore the AI poster that cropped up in True Detective and how its usage was addressed by showrunner Issa López.

What Is True Detective: Night Country’s AI Poster Controversy?

Each new cycle of True Detective attracts the type of audience who is hooked on mysteries and constantly combing for clues, so it’s not surprising that a piece of uncanny décor quickly spread like wildfire through the fanbase’s online discussion of the show. In Night Country‘s second episode, a scene between Kali Reis’ Detective Evangeline Navarro and local miner Chuck Mosely took on a life of its own when fans became more fixated on the posters behind the man than the dialogue itself. Two band posters adorned the interview subject’s wall, one for the real K-Pop group IVE and one for a generic group called “Metal” that looked like an AI-generated Metallica rip-off.

While viewers quickly accused both posters of being AI-generated, IVE fans assessed that the K-Pop one utilized the band’s actual logo and likeness. However, even the more legitimate of the two posters evoked its own pushback from audiences, who felt confused by the prominent placement of the K-Pop group in the Ennis miner’s home. According to López, a line of dialogue about Chuck’s daughter enjoying K-Pop was cut for time. While this explanation satiated fans’ appetite for answers in one department, López’s comments about the more AI-appearing metal poster left room for further skepticism.

Related: True Detective Season 1’s Ending Was Actually Perfect

True Detective: Night Country Showrunner Issa Lopez Addressed AI Concerns

Lopez issued several seemingly disparate statements about the metal poster as screenshots from Night Country continued to circulate, even beyond traditional True Detective circles. What We Do in the Shadows‘ Jemaine Clement was one notable figure from both the television and music space to comment on the poster. “Can’t wait to see Metal on their US tour on the 2st,” Clement wrote on X in response to the poster’s employment of inhuman phrases such as “2st Live”. López responded jovially, “the story behind that poster is so long that the entire discography of Metal, The Band (9 albums and a 4st unreleased), couldn’t cover it.”

López’s response to Clement echoed one of her vague, initial statements on the matter, where she declared that the poster itself had a story worthy of its own True Detective season. However, rather than leave the mystery there, López did offer the following explanation to the X user featured above: “The idea is that it’s so sad up there that some kid with AI made the posters for a loser Metal festival for boomers.” Notably, the True Detective showrunner never confirmed whether the poster was AI or just crafted to look like AI. Per her explanation, though, she implied in another X comment that the show’s crew did “not feel kind towards AI.”

The response to López’s further explanation was met with a bevy of skepticism, with many labeling this follow-up as disingenuous and reactionary. One reason fans were critical of López’s account was that Night Country itself has not yet broached the topic of AI, either directly or metaphorically, which then puts a lot of heavy lifting on one prop to communicate the ideas explained by the showrunner. Regardless of the possible AI art at play, fans noted that the explanation of the poster relied on painting a disparaging and limiting image of Alaska. Furthermore, López referred to the contents of the poster as depicting a “loser Metal festival for boomers,” which led others to question why a character like Chuck would hang something on his wall that’s seemingly meant to deride him.

Until Night Country‘s metal poster gets the season of its own that López teased, all that fans have to fall back on is the showrunner’s standing explanation. While some have accepted López’s reasoning, many remain fixated on the second episode’s perplexing decor. Whether fans fall into the 1st or 2st mindset (or somewhere in-between), True Detective has marked its territory with one of the first television AI controversies of the year.