Hawaiʻi artists concerned about business scams using 'AI slop'
By Maddie Bender, Cassie Ordonio
May 12, 2026 at 12:02 PM HST
With strands of wavy hair and brown eyes, a woman making resin artwork reads a TikTok comment from her phone. Sad music plays in the background.
“Oh, you’re a Polynesian woman that makes ocean lamps for kids? Stick to Moana. Time for a real job,” she reads.
Her followers leave supportive comments defending her work. “Keep designing your lamps! Sending Aloha!” reads one. Others ask where to buy her products.
But experts told HPR that the woman isn’t real. In reality, she is likely an avatar created using artificial intelligence to look like a Pacific Islander. A website linked in her account's bio contains the disclaimer: "Promotional content may use fictionalized storytelling.”
Artificial intelligence has been used to prompt sham small businesses online, and the trend is raising concerns among artists in Hawai‘i.
“There's an AI video trend, which are these fake, handcrafted artists, who are making goods to sell online, and they're pretending to be artists like people that you'd want to sympathize with and support them,” said Jeremy Carrasco, a national journalist covering AI-generated media.
He estimated there could be tens of thousands of accounts like the one purporting to show a Pacific Islander woman. Scammers use sympathetic avatars generated by AI to post as small businesses and sell their products, Carrasco said.
Daniel Kauwila Mahi is a Native Hawaiian artist who specializes in printmaking. He said there's been a rise in non-native creators using AI to sell a fantasy version of Pacific cultural practices.
“None of it is really paying attention to the genealogies from which this came from,” he said. “They're not giving mana to the people that are being represented, or these ancestors who developed these crafts and have these visuals, and even practitioners who are actively doing a lot of the art that AI is trying to replicate.”
Other AI video accounts pose as Black women making lobster bags and goth girls selling Godzilla lamps. A pattern known as “digital blackface” has flourished in the age of AI. Typically, the term refers to non-Black creators claiming Black identities. In the case of the AI-generated avatar of a Pacific Islander hawking resin lamps, Carrasco said the term could be more broadly applied to appropriating a cultural identity.
“In this case, it does seem to be creating a caricature of a Hawaiian and what they might be doing, or what they might be selling. I could see that it would be offensive to many people with that identity,” he added.
Mahi said it's hard enough for local artists to make a living. And now, they have to compete with AI slop.
“Having AI slop or viral AI videos that appropriate our own practices, our own styles, is gonna strip us of those same opportunities or opportunities other folks that are coming up might be trying to find. It eases appropriation in ways that have never necessarily existed before,” he said.
TikTok requires users to label all AI-generated content containing realistic images, audio and video. But some of the videos claiming to show the Pacific Islander woman selling resin lamps have not been labeled as containing AI-generated content. Carrasco said individuals need to up their AI literacy to avoid falling for scams.
"I think that knowing the trends is really helpful. So in this case, understanding that there are these sob story sad AI characters. Oh, would you please buy my handmade goods? This sort of manipulative marketing is something that people should have some media literacy around,” he said.
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“Oh, you’re a Polynesian woman that makes ocean lamps for kids? Stick to Moana. Time for a real job,” she reads.
Her followers leave supportive comments defending her work. “Keep designing your lamps! Sending Aloha!” reads one. Others ask where to buy her products.
But experts told HPR that the woman isn’t real. In reality, she is likely an avatar created using artificial intelligence to look like a Pacific Islander. A website linked in her account's bio contains the disclaimer: "Promotional content may use fictionalized storytelling.”
Artificial intelligence has been used to prompt sham small businesses online, and the trend is raising concerns among artists in Hawai‘i.
“There's an AI video trend, which are these fake, handcrafted artists, who are making goods to sell online, and they're pretending to be artists like people that you'd want to sympathize with and support them,” said Jeremy Carrasco, a national journalist covering AI-generated media.
He estimated there could be tens of thousands of accounts like the one purporting to show a Pacific Islander woman. Scammers use sympathetic avatars generated by AI to post as small businesses and sell their products, Carrasco said.
Daniel Kauwila Mahi is a Native Hawaiian artist who specializes in printmaking. He said there's been a rise in non-native creators using AI to sell a fantasy version of Pacific cultural practices.
“None of it is really paying attention to the genealogies from which this came from,” he said. “They're not giving mana to the people that are being represented, or these ancestors who developed these crafts and have these visuals, and even practitioners who are actively doing a lot of the art that AI is trying to replicate.”
Other AI video accounts pose as Black women making lobster bags and goth girls selling Godzilla lamps. A pattern known as “digital blackface” has flourished in the age of AI. Typically, the term refers to non-Black creators claiming Black identities. In the case of the AI-generated avatar of a Pacific Islander hawking resin lamps, Carrasco said the term could be more broadly applied to appropriating a cultural identity.
“In this case, it does seem to be creating a caricature of a Hawaiian and what they might be doing, or what they might be selling. I could see that it would be offensive to many people with that identity,” he added.
Mahi said it's hard enough for local artists to make a living. And now, they have to compete with AI slop.
“Having AI slop or viral AI videos that appropriate our own practices, our own styles, is gonna strip us of those same opportunities or opportunities other folks that are coming up might be trying to find. It eases appropriation in ways that have never necessarily existed before,” he said.
TikTok requires users to label all AI-generated content containing realistic images, audio and video. But some of the videos claiming to show the Pacific Islander woman selling resin lamps have not been labeled as containing AI-generated content. Carrasco said individuals need to up their AI literacy to avoid falling for scams.
"I think that knowing the trends is really helpful. So in this case, understanding that there are these sob story sad AI characters. Oh, would you please buy my handmade goods? This sort of manipulative marketing is something that people should have some media literacy around,” he said.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai’i, and it’s the people of Hawai’i who keep us independent and strong. Donate today. Mahalo for your support.