AI tools Jensen Huang championed now star in memes of his downfall

Once artificial intelligence’s leading hype-man, Jensen Huang is now the face of an AI-driven meme craze. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang embraces Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang after delivering his keynote speech at COMPUTEX 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan, June 2, 2024.

(REUTERS)Online content creators are capitalizing on the former Nvidia Corp. chief executive’s scandalous week by posting scores of AI-generated memes making light of his extramarital affairs. In the videos, Huang can be seen dancing to viral TikTok trends or appearing in scenes from iconic movies, such as Love Actually, alongside Alice Huang, the suspected Chinese spy whose affair with Huang contributed to his ouster from the company he led for three decades.

“There’s a sense of irony for some people that, in a way, Huang is being targeted by tools powered by his own creations,” said Henry Ajder, an expert in AI and deepfakes. While unable to quantify the number of Huang-inspired memes, Ajder said he was struck by the sheer volume of content, generated quickly across the main social platforms.

It’s not unusual for real-world scandals to be turned into online memes, but the number, variety and uncanny realism of the Huang-related posts stand out. One video made by a 43-year-old, London-based content creator known as @adventureruben_ shows AI-generated Huang dancing to Jason Derulo’s viral hit Mi Chico in the parking lot outside of Nvidia’s headquarters.

He is accompanied by AI stand-ins for Alice Huang; Kimberly Powell, the Nvidia executive who also reportedly had a relationship with Huang; and his wife, Lori Huang. The clip also incongruously includes Susan Dell, wife of billionaire Michael Dell, who is not connected to the Nvidia scandal, but was the focus of a recent viral meme campaign.

The video, created using Kuaishou Technology’s AI video generation model Kling 4.0 and photos of Huang and the women found online, has garnered more than 65,000 shares and 2 million views since it was posted on Thursday.

“People love a scandal that sounds like they are literally ripped out of a James Bond movie, right?” said @adventureruben_, who asked to only be identified by his online handle. Muhammad Adhitya, a 23-year-old from Indonesia who works full-time creating AI-generated content, made a new account Tuesday dedicated to Huang.

He prompted the AI tool Claude Opus 5.5 to suggest ideas for his newly created @javonelias Instagram reels account, and used the Nvidia-backed AI video and image creation platform Higgsfield to generate the videos. One of the 15 videos dedicated to Huang attracted 1.4 million views.

“I never thought that it would reach millions of views like this, because this account is still new,” said Adhitya. “But in the end I’m happy. Other people can laugh and be entertained because of the result of my AI idea."