What Jennifer Did: Netflix accused of manipulating images using AI

Netflix has been accused of using AI to alter images in their new True Crime documentary, What Jennifer Did, with multiple photos from the doco flagged by viewers as having been manipulated.

Netflix has found itself under major scrutiny after the company was accused of using AI-generated and altered images in their new true crime documentary, What Jennifer Did.

The documentary centers around Jennifer Pan, a Canadian woman who was convicted of a kill-for-hire attack on her parents in 2010. The documentary discusses the crime as well as features an in-depth look at her life leading up to the event.

At the 30-minute mark of the documentary, a high school friend of Pan’s, Nam Nguyen describes his friend as a “bubbly, happy, confident, and very genuine” person. These comments are followed by a series of images of Pan that have now been highlighted as being AI-generated or altered.

At face value, the images further Nguyen’s description of Pan as being a “bubbly” person, showcasing her smiling and holding up the peace sign. However, upon closer inspection of the images, it appears that there is more than meets the eye.

Spotted by PetaPixel, a closer look at the images indicates they have been manipulated. One image in particular of Pan holding up the peace sign has been flagged, with both her arms and hands distorted. 

When zooming in on Pan’s left hand in the image, the two fingers signaling the sign are stretched out while the rest of her fingers and hand are all smashed together. This gives off the appearance that Pan only has two fingers.

Similarly, her right thumb has been cut off from her hand. It’s important to note in other images of Pan, her hands look drastically different.

When AI art and images began to boom in 2023, multiple studies and articles were released to support the notion that AI still struggles to recreate realistic-looking hands. 

Amelia Winger-Bearskin, an associate professor of AI and the arts at the University of Florida, explained why AI struggles to recreate hands in a 2023 article from The Washington Post.

She noted that “AI-generated software has not been able to fully understand what the word ‘hand’ means… making the body part difficult to render. Hands come in many shapes, sizes, and forms, and the pictures in training data sets are often more focused on faces.”

What Jennifer Did was released on Netflix on April 10. At the time of writing, Netflix has not issued a statement regarding these allegations. However, we’ll be sure to update this article if there are any new developments.