Paramount+ used AI to create a bizarre Star Trek thumbnail showing Kirk in a business suit

Paramount+ used AI to make the ugliest Star Trek thumbnail ever - Engadget

Paramount+ looks to have used generative AI to whip up a thumbnail for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, according to a report by Kotaku. The image shows Captain Kirk, as played by William Shatner, dressed in a business suit. Kirk never dons a business suit in Wrath of Khan, or any other time throughout Shatner's decades of portraying the character. He did rock a flannel shirt and jeans once during a visit to 1930s Earth. Paramount+ wanted to use the image on the left as a poster for the wrath of Khan, so they used everyone's least favorite technology to generate the rest of the image. -- Ryan Estrada (@ryanestrada.com) 2026-05-28T23:57:45.992Z I've watched every episode of Star Trek across a dozen shows and I'm not even sure business suits exist in that far-flung future, aside from an occasional appearance on the Holodeck. There's no money, so not much need for business. That leaves us asking why Paramount+ and its little AI buddy decided to plop Starfleet's most iconic captain in a button-up shirt and tie. We don't know exactly what happened, but artist Ryan Estrada has an idea. He noted that the actual image of Kirk is from Wrath of Khan, pulled from a scene in which the captain is getting a retinal scan to access a computer file. It's not a particularly exciting scene, and he's wearing a Starfleet uniform. Estrada speculates that Paramount+ got attached to that image of Kirk getting a retinal scan and wanted to highlight it further by making it a thumbnail. However, the image from the film is a close-up of Shatner's face, so generative AI was used to place Kirk's head inside of a fake body and put that body in a business suit. His hair also looks very fake and weird as the original frame cuts off at his forehead. Long live AI slop Kirk. Kotaku has confirmed that the thumbnail is still on the streaming platform, as have folks throughout the internet. Paramount owner David Ellison recently told CNBC that the company is "using technology to transform every single aspect of this business." If that thumbnail is a harbinger of things to come, Trek fans should likely start stocking up on Blu-Rays. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, it hurts to see the property controlled by modern Paramount. The company has pretty much ended the franchise for the time being, after cancelling the surprisingly stellar Starfleet Academy and stopping production on Strange New Worlds.

Paramount+ Serves Up Bizarre AI Slop Thumbnail For Star Trek

There are a lot of problems with generative AI. One of them is that it frequently hallucinates stuff and confidently submits it as fact. Another is that you might ask it to do one thing and then it starts doing a bunch of things you didn't want it to do instead. For example, you might ask it to show subscribers to your streaming platform custom thumbnails that will make them more likely to engage with your content. But then, instead of pulling from a list of pre-approved images, it might start creating its own rogue nightmare fuel. It's impossible to say if that's what is going on with a truly bizarre thumbnail of William Shatner as Captain Kirk for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on Paramount+. But then how else to explain an apparently AI-generated image of Kirk wearing a suit and tie while fighting for his life aboard the USS Stargazer in one of the most classic sci-fi movies ever made? Award-winning author and artist Ryan Estrada pointed out the peculiar image on Bluesky last night. "Paramount+ wanted to use the image on the left as a poster for the wrath of Khan, so they used everyone's least favorite technology to generate the rest of the image," he speculated. Users in the comments opened the app to go look and while some were served the existing box art for the movie, others got AI slop Kirk. I went to go confirm this by opening up Paramount+ on my PlayStation 5 this morning and browsing through the sci-fi and fantasy section. Sure enough, Terminator Kirk was right there with his glowing red eye staring back at me. Is this truly a rogue AI trying to boost engagement on the fifth-place streaming service, or did someone play around with ChatGPT and then accidentally upload the wrong thumbnail? Perhaps this is just the latest example of Paramount's new owners trying to make the legacy Hollywood company into a more tech-forward business. "And we've also repeatedly said that we really need to become one of the most technologically capable media companies. We're using technology to transform every single aspect of this business, and we're going to rationalize the cost. And at the end of the day, we're owner operators," owner David Ellison recently told CNBC. It would be one shockingly depressing thing if this contagion were isolated to Paramount, but with the impending Warner Bros. acquisition poised to skate through the regulatory process, it is guaranteed to spread to another entertainment and streaming giant. You thought the annual price hikes were bad, just wait until the product you're paying for becomes enshitified top-to-bottom with AI junk. It's time to start building that Blu-ray collection, folks.