Esquire Singapore Published AI-Generated Interview with One Piece Actor Without Consent

Summary

Esquire Singapore published a cover story interview with actor Mackenyu Maeda, who plays Roronoa Zoro in Netflix's live-action One Piece adaptation, but the interview was entirely AI-generated using Claude and Copilot rather than conducted with the actual actor. The magazine justified the decision by stating that Mackenyu's busy schedule prevented an in-person interview, so they extracted verbatim quotes from his previous interviews and fed them through AI to generate new responses. The resulting piece features generic, non-committal answers to vague questions and includes inappropriate content about Mackenyu's deceased father, legendary action star Sonny Chiba. Neither Mackenyu nor his talent agency provided consent for the AI recreation, and fans have expressed significant displeasure with the publication's decision to present fabricated responses as if they came from the actor.

• Mackenyu's fanbase and representatives have expressed disappointment and anger, with no evidence the actor approved this approach

Editorial Opinion

This incident represents a concerning new low in 'AI slop' journalism—prioritizing publication deadlines over basic journalistic ethics and subject consent. While tight schedules and scheduling conflicts are common in media, the solution should never be to fabricate an interview with an AI facsimile of the subject. Esquire's decision to publish emotionally manipulative content about a real person's deceased father without their input raises serious questions about where editorial boundaries should be drawn in the age of generative AI.