Nvidia, the biggest company at the heart of an AI-driven hardware crisis that’s making everything unaffordable, has decided to return to its old stomping grounds, video games, and ruin those too. Today it proudly debuted new AI-powered DLSS 5 tech that CEO and head jacket nerd Jensen Huang declared “the GPT moment for graphics — blending handcrafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.” Artists, among others, beg to differ.
A video by Digital Foundry demonstrating the tech has been met with near-unanimous derision, in large part due to the way it mangles faces of characters like Grace and Leon from Resident Evil Requiem, as well as… pretty much anyone who’s not white. In some cases it appears to strip away lighting sources, while in others it paves over any notion of artistic intent, replacing even photorealistic characters’ trademark wrinkles and fissures with porn-y airbrushed sheen.
I don't think it's a coincidence that this got announced within months of Twitter letting Grok remove people's clothes and otherwise sexualize them. Tech companies have become enamored with the idea of users personalizing everything, heedless of original intent or potential harm. This ties back to tech bros’ obsession with “democratizing” art, which completely ignores why and how people make art in the first place. More than anything, it reveals a resentment for the idea of arts and humanities — as well as a desire to own and control them. They do not want art, which often provokes and challenges existing power structures (in other words, theirs). They desire only content that soothes their fragile egos, that hides the simmering resentment everyone else in the world feels towards them.
But even beyond those higher-minded concerns, Grace is a particularly bizarre character to spotlight in a demo of this tech, considering that her look and vibe have inspired countless posts about how she's a very specific kind of nerd. Yassifying her misses the point entirely.
Game developers and those who support them have reacted with an outpouring of both trenchant observations and, of course, memes:
Art Direction ON / Art Direction OFF
— Jules Glegg 🏳️⚧️ (@julesfern.gay) 2026-03-16T19:44:52.197Z
DLYASS 5 more like
— Lucy James (@lucyjames.games) 2026-03-16T19:57:47.750Z
going to the LAN party and disabling this on your friends' computers like you have to disable motion smoothing on your older relatives' TVs when you visit during the holidays
— our every move is the new tradition (@nekobun.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:47:33.092Z
obligatory
— snap & grab hot dog enjoyer (@dan.nogoblin.social) 2026-03-16T20:00:00.451Z
Esse é o futuro dos videogames com o DLSS 5
— Dan Dan (@twilightdandan.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:06:04.255Z
the ai facetune part of the dlss is vile and gross for sure but there is a straight line from apple and google so thoroughly ratfucking photos taken in the camera app since 2018 to this point
— niki grayson (@nikigrayson.com) 2026-03-16T19:57:44.580Z
once you learn how much training data images of women come from porn, it illuminates so much. this is more than bad to look at, it's the rot of misogyny in full display. arxiv.org/pdf/2110.01963
— jason 🔜 PAX East (@singingpigs.online) 2026-03-16T21:01:13.937Z
— Alex Donaldson (@apzonerunner.com) 2026-03-16T19:11:49.229Z
I have a sneaking and horrible suspicion.
— TBSkyen (@tbskyen.com) 2026-03-16T19:45:18.561Z
I make a lot of use of DLSS in its current incarnation, but I don't want a version of it that feels like it's running the image through a genAI reinterpreter - and no matter what is actually happening technologically, that's what the output *looks* like aesthetically
— Korlis (@korl.is) 2026-03-16T19:39:20.570Z
— Tristan Cooper (@tristanacooper.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:32:04.779Z
— Imran Khan (@imrankhan.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:13:08.068Z
DLSS getting a racism update is CRAZY😭
— Jiikae (@jiikae.com) 2026-03-16T19:15:40.210Z
nvidia unveils "mind blowing" new upscaling technology
— Tipper Guro (@adamsandler.click) 2026-03-16T19:33:50.762Z
weird that this impressive lighting tech also randomly turns everyone into yassified, looks-maxed freaks. it's like all this technology can't help itself but sexualize everything it touches. but like, through the lens of teenage boys. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zlw...
— dannyodwyer (@dannyodwyer.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:15:46.805Z
I'm proud to announce that Future? No Thanks! will employ NVIDIA's groundbreaking DLSS 5 technology to seamlessly deliver the fidelity all gamers crave.
— Molleindustria - Wishlist FUTURE? NO THANKS! (@molleindustria.org) 2026-03-16T20:10:23.731Z
when digital foundry comes out in favour of the most dogshit filtering technology you've ever seen in your life
— Christine Love (@christinelove.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:08:18.961Z
For all the faults you could throw at NVIDIA, I wouldn't of thought DLSS would get to the point of actually yassifying games... Surely developers, or, artists, can't be excited for this, right?
— Jesse Gomez (@itsjessegomez.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T21:01:35.516Z
— Andy Kelly (@ultrabrilliant.xyz) 2026-03-16T20:29:40.865Z
I am finished the video and can say with full confidence that the intent to "fully realize the developer's intended vision" is not only a bad starting point, but the execution is beyond awful -- every single DLSS 5 On example they show is materially worse. A total role-reversal for before/after
— Mitch Dyer (@mitchyd.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:01:45.858Z
DLSS 5 off / DLSS 5 on
— i’m just ken (@shepardcdr.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:49:55.522Z
DLSS5 is INCREDIBLE.
— Writing on Games (@writingongames.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:33:31.846Z
"What if shadows didn't exist"
— Imran Khan (@imrankhan.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:09:13.168Z
aside from the obvious That's Not Grace of this, i put on the DF video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zlw...) and i just vehemently disagree with so much of the thinking that gets us here. lighting and look is a Choice. it's part of the palette. this lucid-dream 'photo-realism' pursuit tamps that down.
— eric van allen (@seamoosi.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:13:46.110Z
DLSS 5 solves the problem of triple A games all looking the same by making them look the same in a different way
— winter (@winterk.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:14:20.751Z
DLSS 5 OFF // DLSS 5 ON
— Tuba Zef (@tubazef.com) 2026-03-16T19:59:49.301Z
Original / DLSS 5
— Arthur Tayt-Sohn (@arthurtaytsohn.gamelodge.com.br) 2026-03-16T19:39:59.991Z
DLSS 5 is a breakthrough technology
— Everything Metal Gear ❗ (@metalgearqwc.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:21:49.458Z
Grace looks notably very bad in this but don’t also sleep on how fucked up Hogwarts Legacy looks youtu.be/dJACkKbN-Eo?...
— Chris Person (@papapishu.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T19:53:06.807Z
The funniest part of the DLSS 5 demo is they had it running on two GPUs but say it'll work on one eventually. The point of DLSS is that it makes it so if you're broke you can run your game at 4k. They had an entire GPU just for the yassification lighting.
— Chris Person (@papapishu.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T20:46:37.666Z
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