Fans can’t stop talking aboutDirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, theNetflixdocuseries that chronicles the life and crimes of Lou Pearlman, best known for founding popular boy bands likeThe Backstreet Boysand*NSYNC. But there was a lot more to the former talent manager.He pled guilty to conspiracy, money laundering, and making false statements. His web of lies was revealed, involving one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history.
Thethree-part docuseriesfeatures fascinating interviews and archival footage from those who worked with Pearlman, including boy banders themselves and former friends and associates. But the gripping story is overshadowed by the awful use of artificial intelligence (AI) to replicate Pearlman’s speech and video footage in numerous scenes.
How AI Was Used in Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam
Near the beginning of the docuseries,viewers are advised that digitally altered footage of Pearlman talking will appear throughout the three episodes. It’s a real video of Pearlman, but as his mouth moves, it looks unnatural. That’s because he isn’t actually saying the words being spoken. They are being said by an actor who was hired to deliver the words, while the image of Pearlman was altered to show his mouth moving along with the dialogue.
To clarify, these are Pearlman’s own words, but they are lifted from his writings, passages from his bookBands, Brands & Billions, and spoken by someone else using old footage of him. The image of Pearlman makes it look like he’s speaking these words when, in fact, he was saying something completely different in the original footage.
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How was this done? Michael Johnson, the executive producer, toldNetflix Tudumthat AI experts from MIT Media Lab, Pinscreen, and Resemble AI were used to help execute the vision.The footage was digitally altered to add a level of authenticity. But the strange synchronization of the lips and the robotic image comes across as the exact opposite. Many viewers found it downright weird.
Since Pearlmanpassed away in jailback in 2016, it would have been impossible to interview him live (and he likely would not have agreed to participate anyway). So, this strategy was apparently the next best thing. But it didn’t quite turn out in a way that viewers liked. Seeing Pearlman sit at a desk, arms folded in front of him as his lips move oddly and he gesticulates, or his head tilts in ways that often don’t match the dialogue is admittedly creepy. Words used by viewers to describe the AI integration range from off-putting to distracting. But most importantly, fans found it unnecessary.
What Viewers Have to Say About the AI in Dirty Pop
Viewers didn’t hold back when expressing their feelings about the use of AI in this docuseries.@AlexisToddNYon X called the AI-generated voice “not necessary.” However, they also add that the existence of AI footage, despite how unconvincing it is, points to a larger issue. “Really hope this doesn’t become a trend,” they say. “Won’t be able to tell what’s real and what’s fake anymore.”
@jessicalynneon X says “to whoever decided to make AI Lou Pearlman the narrator of this Dirty Pop documentary on Netflix, I hope you step on a LEGO. This is embarrassing.”
@JerryRoeon X says they won’t even finish the docuseries because they find the use of AI so “off-putting and terrible…it’s super distracting! Why even bother? What’s the point?”
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Conversations even spread to Reddit, with RedditorWhich_Squash8615commenting in a thread that it was in “such poor taste,” andmilkdud740called it “forced AI for the sake of using AI.”Sadako1287added in the same thread that the “AI creeped me out every time they used it. Really took away from the doc, if I’m being honest.”
Producers Defend the Decision to Use AI in Dirty Pop
Nonetheless, the producers defend their decision. When asked by Netflix Tudum why they opted to use AI-altered footage of Pearlman, Johnson says they made this choice to “push the envelope with new technology to assist in our telling of this incredible story.” He adds that they aimed to use the technology “in the most ethical way possible as an additive storytelling tool, not as a replacement tool of any kind.” Every word spoken was Pearlman’s own words, used as producers were able to secure his life rights.
Johnson says the idea behind using the footage of Pearlman was to “capture his true mannerisms and body language.” He says theuse of AIto deliver Pearlman’s actual words was designed to reflect his warped reality, which was very different from the reality everyone else experienced. “This juxtaposition is essential to understanding Lou as a human being as well as a devious con man,” Johnson explains.
Thankfully, footage of boy band members, along with new interviews with people like Howie Dorough and AJ McLean fromThe Backstreet Boysand Chris Kirkpatrick from*NYNC,weren’t altered at all, along with other archival footage, which was authentic. This footage made up most of the docuseries: the AI bits were interspersed throughout.
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It was a creative decision to add to the story. It’s impossible to bring someone back from the dead to be interviewed for a docuseries, after all. Even some who remain alive don’t want to participate. This is when producers find other ways to tell a subject’s words. It’s common to hear a person’s words or writing narrated by an actor, for example, to help viewers better understand the person. But it would have been better to have a narrator read these passages alongside archival footage of Pearlman being shown in the background.
Nonetheless, producers should be given some credit for the attempt at using modern-day technology in storytelling. They gave it a shot. The response has been general “ick,” but it’s also not the first time Netflix has been frowned upon for allowing AI in a documentary. InWhat Jennifer Did, fans were angered at the belief that AI was used to either digitally alter or create images, according toBGR.com.
ProducersofWhat Jennifer Diddidn’t openly disclosethe alleged use of AI, and executive producer Jeremy Grimaldi toldThe Toronto Starthat the photos are, in fact, real but that “any filmmaker will use different tools, like Photoshop, in films.” Photoshop, as tech-savvy individuals know, offers AI-generated tools as part of the mix now, though Grimaldi did not elaborate on whether the tools used to tweak the images involved AI or not. At least withDirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, producers were forthcoming about the admittedly much more blatant use of AI for that portion of the docuseries.But that doesn’t make the resulting product any less unsettling.
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This could just be the beginning. As AI improves, the technology could pop up more and more in docuseries and other types of entertainment content. Most frightening is not the fact that AI could be used more, but rather the fact that viewers might eventually not catch on.
When it comes toDirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam, the AI is delivered in an in-your-face style that’s so obvious that if it weren’texplained, fans would have had an even bigger field day. It wasn’t designed to fool or mislead viewers into thinking it was authentic. However,the intended reaction was still negative. Some feel the AI version of Pearlman muddles the story, but it shouldn’t. Despite how distracting the AI clips are, the technology used to tell part of this horrendous story is not nearly as disturbing as the story itself.StreamDirty Pop: The Boy Band ScamonNetflix.
