Will Smith Spaghetti Benchmark

2023

Date: 27 March 2023 (and 14 February 2024 successor) · Place: Reddit r/StableDiffusion, then OpenAI Sora announcement · Figures: Reddit user u/chaindrop, original poster · ModelScope text-to-video model · Will Smith, subject · Tags: AI, Benchmark, Video 01. Spaghetti as Cursed Object On 27 March 2023 the Reddit user u/chaindrop generates a 20-second video of Will Smith eating spaghetti using the open-source ModelScope text-to-video model. The clip is grotesque. The fork phases through Smith's hand. The pasta becomes Smith's face. The face becomes the pasta. The clip earns millions of views as a benchmark of what AI video cannot do. Will Smith eating spaghetti becomes the internet's canonical AI-video stress test. 02. The 2024 Comparison When OpenAI announces Sora on 15 February 2024 the first thing the internet does is rerun the prompt. The 2024 Sora version is photoreal. The fork holds. The pasta behaves. Side-by-side 2023 vs 2024 comparison videos become a meme in their own right. Will Smith eating spaghetti is the only AI benchmark widely understood by non-engineers. It is the unit by which the layperson measures one year of model progress. Sources • u/chaindrop, original ModelScope Will Smith video (Reddit r/StableDiffusion, 27 March 2023) • The Verge, 'Why Is AI Generating Cursed Videos of Will Smith?' (3 April 2023) • OpenAI, Sora announcement and gallery (15 February 2024)