Netflix Accused Of Using AI In What Jennifer Did Documentary

Streaming giant Netflix has been accused of using AI in its trending true crime documentary What Jennifer Did after punters pointed out several distortions in some of the images used in the project.

One of the things that Netflix is known for is its plethora of content surrounding the grim subject of true crime. In early April, the streaming giant dropped What Jennifer Did, which is a documentary that unpacks the case of Jennifer Pan who’s serving life in prison after she hired hitmen to kill her parents.

In the documentary, it appeared that the filmmakers obtained a bunch of never-seen-before images of Jennifer. However, according to Futurism, some of the photos used appear distorted or manipulated.

Per the publication, some of the inconsistencies that were pointed out included Jennifer’s hand which seemed to have missing fingers, her facial features and the objects in the background.

True Crime content creator Sylvia (@celestialsylvia) also mentioned that the featured photo for the doco also seemed a bit off.

“I also just noticed that in this left photo, her top teeth do not line up with the bottom row. It’s like one tooth is behind,” Sylvia said.

The TikToker also added that she believed Netflix could have “just enhanced” the images to improve its quality, hence why it has a “fake look”.

“Personally, I do this it’s odd to create AI for true crime because those two things are just complete opposites of the spectrum,” she continued in her video which has garnered more than one million views.

Executive Producer of What Jennifer Did responds to AI claims

Speaking to the Toronto Star, What Jennifer Did executive producer Jeremy Grimaldi denied the use of AI in the documentary, but said “different tools” were used in the film.

“Any filmmaker will use different tools, like Photoshop, in films,” he told the publication.

“The photos of Jennifer are real photos of her. The foreground is exactly her. The background has been anonymized to protect the source.” 

Netflix has yet to respond to the speculation surrounding What Jennifer Did and the alleged use of AI.