My piece in the magazine this week looks at an A.I. video, one that’s arguably a work of fan art. Fan art is a sort of cursed genre, often a staging ground for people working through potentially unhealthy obsessions and characterized by aesthetic hallmarks that suggest a lifestyle defined by fandom: here’s my favorite podcaster as an anime character; here is my second favorite podcaster, incidentally also as an anime character. And so on. But with generative A.I., things are different. Fan art can shed all of these tells and become something more powerful. Recently, one video seemed to make a genuine impact on the Los Angeles mayoral race. It was made by a Spencer Pratt booster named Charlie Curran and went viral, earning plaudits from big-name conservatives, some of whom seemed to think it was an actual campaign ad. It featured Pratt as Batman and his opponent Karen Bass as the Joker, alongside many other recognizable figures from real life and the Batman cinematic universe — specifically, the films of Christopher Nolan. But many of the details of the movies were scrambled: by the dream logic of the A.I. engine; by the quirks of the man prompting the machine; and by some of the telling inversions of populist politics. Stay in touch: Like this email? Forward it to a friend and help us grow. Loved a story? Hated it? Write us a letter at magazine@nytimes.com. Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get the magazine newsletter.
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