Strange AI-generated clips of musicians with animals are going viral

If nothing else, generative AI has proven useful for people who want to make odd stuff for no real reason.

The latest thing? Musicians accompanied by animals. Accompanied in the official, musical sense, and also in an even more literal way — as in a kitty cat climbing all over a metal singer for reasons that are entirely unclear.

Here's this clip that's racked up 13 million likes (and about 113 million views) on TikTok.

Is this AI? Yes. Obviously so, I'd argue. Just look at the cat — the way it moves is uncanny, physics-defying in a way that's unmistakably a trademark of AI. But it is good enough to fool lots of folks.

Here's a good breakdown of the inconsistencies in the video that make it clear it's AI-generated.

That metal singer with a cat isn't the only version of the strange, specific trend. Here's an AI-generated cat accompanying a choir. It's racked up nearly 3 million likes on Facebook.

If you look at the mouths of the singers or how the cat meows, nothing really lines up. But, again, it's good enough to get people to like it as they scroll by.

AI video trends have become remarkably common. There was a whole trend of faking surveillance footage of cute animals, or there was the one with uncanny valley babies, or an entire genre where humans clean whales with heavy machinery.

So just keep this in mind as you scroll: Anything that seems unbelievable, well, maybe you shouldn't believe it these days.