'Make it stop' - Auckland moviegoers boo AI video depicting Māori and Russell Crowe

Moviegoers at Auckland's Hollywood Cinema were blindsided by a "baffling" and "uncomfortable" AI-generated video of Russell Crowe on Wednesday night.

The theatre manager acknowledged the short film was "a complete misfire" and that the US-based creator's knowledge of Aotearoa was "limited to a few Google searches”.

The 10 minute and 20 second clip depicted a computer-generated version of Wellington-born Crowe as a medieval monk on a 14th century pilgrimage to "the Hollow Wood," a medieval cinema "established by the first European settlers in 1349AD”. RNZ has seen the video but has chosen not to republish it.

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It was instructing the audience in cinema etiquette and featured pre-colonisation representation of Māori.

The first European explorer to reach New Zealand was Abel Tasman in 1642.

The video, created by a Los Angeles based director, screened before the premiere of Friendship, an A24-distributed comedy film.

The Hollywood Cinema is a boutique theatre in Avondale that primarily screens independent and art-house films. Among the audience of roughly 200 people on Wednesday night was comedian Guy Williams. He thought the video was a trailer for a new film. But it soon became clear the video had been generated by artificial intelligence.

"Twenty seconds into it Russell Crowe's face had changed three times and we were like 'oh my God, this is AI. We've been fooled.' When it was revealed it was a joke about the Hollywood Cinema we laughed and were kind of excited for it to end... Then it kept on going."

Williams said the audience booed and jeered throughout most of the video.

One audience member said she was particularly offended by the video's depiction of Māori.

"To watch an AI-generated hallucination that was misusing Māori taonga and repeatedly featuring mispronunciations of the word Māori... That was honestly baffling. Everyone was just booing and so uncomfortable. People were actually crying out 'make it stop, make it stop,' it was terrible," she said.

AI ethicist Dr Karaitiana Taiuru said the video's renderings of tāmoko were in poor taste and perpetuated certain stereotypes.

“It’s crazy,” he told RNZ’s The Panel. “It also reflects that AI can be offensive and misleading and we really need a human in the loop when we’re creating online content like this."

“It’s promoting conspiracy theories and it just goes to show that AI cannot be trusted.”

Taiuru told RNZ: "The issue for Māori is that AI hasn't been trained on our culture or our moko very well, so we're going to see some horrendous images that purport to be moko when, as in that video, it's not moko... It's a mess of lines and shapes on people's faces."

"Content creators should be aware that it's not acceptable to use other people's moko or portray Māori people in the way those video creators did in this instance."

Another moviegoer described the theatre's mood as "somewhere between bemused and extremely irritated”.

"People were loudly booing through large parts of it, there was applause when it ended. It seemed like every single person in the theatre hated it," they said.

"For a cinema like the Hollywood, which I love, it was a really bizarre and hard to understand intrusion on the experience."

Auckland movie fan Victor Saussey said he had seen the video two weeks earlier at a private screening, where he was asked to give feedback ahead of its debut on Wednesday.

"My impression, and I would say this was shared with the group I was with, was negative. It was overwhelmingly negative," he said.

Williams said a large portion of the audience on Wednesday night worked in the screen industry and found the prospect of an AI-generated video disturbing.

"It was kind of upsetting ... Anyone in any job from accountants to lawyers probably have some sort of anxiety about AI, but obviously it's a huge thing in the film and television industry which is already suffering and struggling.”

The director called the video a PSA via his social media channels. The night after the confusing screening, the Hollywood’s general manager Matt Timpson said it was meant to be ironic.

“Created by an underground artist in the US with knowledge of Aotearoa limited to a few google searches - their intent was an ironic PSA to champion analog / 35mm projection at The Hollywood,” he wrote in a statement.

“The audience reactions have been diverse, and it was never intended to cause offence, nor become a staple in our pre-show programming which changes all the time.”

RNZ contacted the US based creator for comment.