Commenters are calling out Will Smith for using AI in a concert video.
The video, posted to YouTube on Aug. 12, features the actor and rapper performing on stage with a montage of his audiences. The crowd looks real in some shots, but in others, given the prevalence of blurry faces, extra fingers and akimbo limbs, it appears to be AI-generated.
One YouTube commenter responded, «I like to pause this video and see your crowd close up, too. There are lots of extra digits in this crowd.» Another said, «This is offensive to old people without their glasses on. You know they believed this was the realest crowd ever.»
A representative for Smith at his talent agency, CAA, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Smith is currently touring through Europe, and the concert video, which doesn’t specify a location, appeared to be a promo for the new performances.
There’s no description, but the title is: «My favorite part of tour is seeing you all up close. Thank you for seeing me too ❤️»
Smith released a new album, Based on a True Story, earlier this year, and it did not garner great reviews.
Wild wild west (of AI content generation)
While Smith may be the one getting blowback (or slapback) for this type of AI use, experts say that we’re exposed to a lot more AI content from celebrities and online influencers than we may know.
«AI is quietly becoming part of the content creation toolkit for a lot of celebrities and influencers and their agency teams,» says Manick Bhan, an AI and AI models expert at Search Atlas.
«It’s happening more than most people realize, and it’s just the beginning,» Bhan says. «Within a year, it will be very difficult to tell what is real and what is not.»
Bhan says that high-profile content generators aren’t just looking to save money; they can generate content much more quickly and at a larger scale than they would otherwise. «You can film one performance and make it look like ten different shows with different audiences, all without leaving the studio,» he says.
While viewers might be upset that stars aren’t transparent about their AI use, Bhan predicts that outrage will die down as the practice becomes more widely accepted. And even the people who are willing to go through videos frame-by-frame to find evidence of AI may not be able to tell the difference much longer.
«The Will Smith video stood out because the AI crowd was obvious if you looked closely, but the technology is evolving so quickly that in a year, his team will be able to pull that off without a backlash,» Bhan says.