AI video generators have come a long way in their relatively short existence, and the unlikely yardstick by which many of us have come to measure this progress has—for one reason or another—taken the form of Will Smith eating spaghetti videos.
As one user pointed out on flight simulation forum AVSIM in late September 2024, these videos have become an AI benchmark. The difference in quality between the original AI-generated Will Smith eating spaghetti video—which went viral after it was posted to the r/stablediffusion subreddit by u/chaindrop in March 2023—and subsequent iterations—is stark. The AI improved significantly in movement, detail, and realism.
So significantly that nearly a year after the initial nightmarish iteration went viral on X.com, the actor shared a parody video of himself pretending to be an AI-generated rendering eating spaghetti—and people were unsure of what was real, and what was AI. Which is arguably when it crossed over from viral video to meme.
Why, exactly, Will Smith eating spaghetti crystalized as the de facto AI video benchmark is anyone’s guess. On a technical level, it’s a complex ask. these generators have always had a difficult time with food (which often explodes), hands (which rarely have the correct number of fingers), and the nuances of eating generally. There are also a lot of noodles for the AI to keep track of, another hurdle.
But culturally speaking, as with any meme, the why doesn’t so much matter. It is as much a method of communication as it is an inside joke. Much like the Utah Teapot of the late ’70s and ’80s—a famous 3D model and computer graphics benchmark that was kind of a pre-meme meme—Will Smith eating spaghetti videos have become a cultural reference that breaches the gap between tech and pop culture. It has become an AI litmus test for the layman, a way for the culture at large to participate and track developments in the latest big tech wave.
2023 AI Will Smith eating spaghetti was comically gruesome. 2024 AI Will Smith eating spaghetti is plausible. 2025 AI Will Smith eating spaghetti might not be recognizable as AI at all (the actor’s real-life parody of the spaghetti-eating videos is undoubtedly hastening this certainty, providing generators with more exact data to replicate).
At which point AI benchmarks will become more difficult to articulate and define, and memes will continue to feel more niche as the social internet grows increasingly fragmented. Tutto passa.
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