Why fans are furious about this ‘innocent’ footage of Steve Irwin with daughter Bindi

Furious Steve Irwin fans have lashed out after a social media user posted a ‘creepy’ AI-generated clip of the late Crocodile Hunter interacting with his daughter Bindi.

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One short clip showed an AI-generated Steve Irwin smiling next to his daughter Bindi, 26, as she looks now.

Steve and Bindi’s models have a waxy creepy effect in the images, and don’t quite resemble their real-life counterparts.

Steve’s face is much plumper than in real life, while Bindi’s features are completely smoothed out, giving her the appearance of a porcelain doll.

This disturbing effect is commonly referred to as the uncanny valley, and AI images often have clear clues to indicate that it is not a real photo.

Bindi was just eight years old when Steve tragically died in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray off the coast of Queensland. So he never knew his daughter as an adult.

Angry Irwin fans quickly responded to the post to condemn the user for their actions.

“This is really fucking. I think you need to take a hard look at yourself for putting this out into the world,” one irate user snapped.

“These are real people, who have experienced real human tragedies. No doll toys,” a second user added.

“Absolutely fucking creepy,” a third user chimed in, and another wrote, “Extremely disrespectful and distasteful.”

This is the latest installment in a series of controversies over the use of AI to generate images of celebrities without their consent.

Earlier this month, The Block host Scott Cam publicly lashed out after AI images of him injecting a weight-loss product were used without his knowledge.

Steve ‘The Crocodile Hunter’ Irwin died on September 4, 2006, aged 44, off the coast of Queensland, after being pierced in the chest by a stingray while filming a nature documentary.

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Steve and Bindi’s models have a waxy creepy effect to the photos, and don’t quite resemble their real-life counterparts. Pictured: Steve and Terri Irwin with their children Bindi and Robert in 2003

Bindi was six years old when he tragically passed away, while her brother Robert was three months shy of his third birthday.

However, his legacy lives on through his family, who have continued his mission of conservation and advocacy.

It was Steve’s father, Bob, 85, who built the iconic Queensland zoo from the ground up in 1970 and passed it on to his late son and wife Terri in 1992.

During his lifetime, Steve promoted conservation with his own hit TV show, The Crocodile Hunter.

His family has continued his legacy with their own blockbuster wildlife reality series Crikey! It’s the Irwins.

The series debuted in 2018 and continues to air on the Animal Planet network.