Actor and TV personality Mario Lopez has copped widespread backlash after posting a “creepy” AI-generated video of his teenage niece eating hot dogs at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game.
The Saved By The Bell star’s family outing with niece Kalia Wong, 19, sparked controversy on social media after he shared an AI clip of Kalia sitting beside him at Dodger Stadium, struggling to eat two loaded hot dogs at the game on Sunday.
As fake Kalia takes a massive bite at her food, the toppings spilled onto her Dodgers jersey with the mustard and relish then splattering all over her face.
“I can’t take her anywhere,” an AI version of Lopez could be heard saying in the clip. “Oh my God, look at you! You’re a mess – the mustard!”
The computer-generated Kalia then leaned into the chaos and exclaimed, “Ah, so good!” as the camera zoomed in and she proceeded to rub the spillage on her face.
The clip was flagged by X with a disclaimer for users, stating at the bottom of the video that it was “Made with Grok Image” – the platform’s AI image and video generator.
Lopez, 52, also shared the clip to his Instagram Story with the caption, “My niece is out of control!”
However, as his video quickly went viral, the Access Hollywood host was slammed online by many who thought the clip was sexually suggestive and inappropriate.
“What did I just watch,” one tweeted on X, as another wrote, “This video is beyond creepy.”
“The layers to this are mind boggling … sexualising your own niece … in a clearly terrible AI slop video … with no other context … f***ing unhinged,” one user commented, as yet another tweeted, “Feels like the kind of sh*t you send in a family group chat, not post online for the world to see. So weird.”
Yet another wondered, “Imagine you think you’re having a nice outing with your uncle, only to see he created a weird ahh ai video of you.”
One user tweeted what we were all thinking: “Jesus Christ, what did he write in the prompt?”
Even fellow media personalities weighed in on Lopez’s video.
“What the f**k, Mario?” tweeted Dan Katz, who co-hosts the Barstool Sports podcast, Pardon My Take.
His colleague, Jeff D. Lowe, was just as confused, writing, “Pound for pound one of the weirdest tweets I’ve ever seen.”
Journalist Yashar Ali reshared the video to his own feed, with the caption, “Uhhhh, what a creepy video for Mario Lopez to create using AI and then post … Especially since the subject is his niece!”
While Lopez has yet to respond to the backlash, he has since deleted the video and replaced it with a non-AI version of the pair watching the game.
“Hotter than a Dodger dog on the grill out here but the Dodgers might be even hotter. Big moves,” the actor told the camera. “Let’s go Skubal. Big expectations and I’m all in for this post-season push. Let’s do it up. I’m here with my niece, Kalia. Say what’s up. Are you ready?”
“I’m so excited,” Kalia replied.