Mario Lopez Backlash Over AI Video of Niece Eating Hot Dogs

Actor and television host Mario Lopez has sparked widespread criticism after posting an AI-generated video of his niece eating hot dogs at a baseball game, with many social media users calling the clip "creepy" and inappropriate. The video, posted on August 2 and later deleted, showed Lopez and his 19-year-old niece, Kalia Wong, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. In the AI-generated sequence, Wong is depicted struggling to eat two mustard-covered hot dogs, making a mess that she then smears on her face while an AI version of Lopez exclaims, "I can't take her anywhere!"

The clip was created using Grok Imagine, an AI tool from xAI, and was flagged on the platform as AI-generated. It quickly went viral, amassing millions of views and drawing intense backlash. Many viewers interpreted the exaggerated, messy eating as sexually suggestive, particularly because the subject is Lopez's niece. Journalist Yashar Ali commented on the platform, calling it "a creepy video for Mario Lopez to create using AI and then post." Other users described the content as "weird," "disgusting," and inappropriate, with some suggesting it crossed a line into "intra-family" abuse. One user wrote that Lopez...