‘We actually must stand there like idiots’

The UFC has been receiving a variety of criticism as of late for his or her accelerated use of AI.

In the beginning of the yr, the UFC began their recent $7.7 billion broadcast take care of Paramount, which ended their long and successful partnership with ESPN.

With that change in broadcast partnership, there have been several changes to the UFC’s fight night coverage in addition to some recent pre-fight build-up features.

And something else that has been key to the promotion’s marketing over the previous few months is their use of AI, which hasn’t sat well with the fans.

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Josh Hokit debunks recent AI claim

Earlier this yr, UFC boss Dana White was asked for his comments on fans’ response to their use of AI, through which he gave a damning response by telling fans to ‘shut the f— up and watch the fights’.

That then led to the UFC’s executive producer coming out and defending the promotion’s use of AI claiming that it amplifies content creation as a substitute of substituting it.

White has constantly stated that the UFC’s use of AI in marketing has nothing to do with their recent take care of Paramount and that it has been the promotion’s decision to make use of it.

And this past weekend at UFC Perth, the promotion was accused of using AI again with their Tale of the Tape videos that include fighters standing there posing for the cameras for over 30 seconds.

Despite claims that the videos are AI, soaring heavyweight contender Josh Hokit got here out and debunked the claim.

“It’s not AI… We actually must stand there like idiots for 30 seconds,” Hokit said in a post on X.

The UFC hasn’t all the time used videos for his or her Tale of the Tape graphic moments before fights as they used to make use of static images of their pre-fight breakdown of every fighter.

Hokit is about to feature on the UFC White House event this coming June 14 when he’ll tackle Derrick Lewis in a fight which was put together by Donald Trump and Joe Rogan.

Ahead of that historical event, the UFC has been using AI to generate promotional videos including the likes of Ilia Topuria, Justin Gaethje and Alex Pereira, all of which have been generated by AI.