Will Smith tour video appears to use fake AI crowd, viewers say
He's not eating spaghetti, but there seems to be some AI slop in a YouTube video shared by Will Smith.
Commenters noticed telltale signs of generative AI in a video on the Fresh Prince's official YouTube channel promoting his tour. The video, which appears to be live footage of Smith performing his new song "You Can Make It," shows fans with distorted faces, hands, and other possible evidence that the crowds were AI-generated.
People did not hold back on the presumed use of generative AI to create big crowds and emotional fans. "Ok, this guy definitely has a humiliation fetish," a user commented. "No other explanation for releasing a crowd of AI abominations holding up misspelled signs about how he saved their lives." One shot showed a fan holding up a sign saying "'You Can Make It' helped me survive cancer. Thx Will." The fan has that cartoony frown and shiny smooth skin common in AI-generated videos, and the hand of the person in front of him morphs into his hand holding up the sign, with a seemingly disembodied hand behind theirs.
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"Imagine being this rich and famous and having to use AI footage of crowds and bot comments on your video," commented another user. "Tragic, man. You used to be cool."
Elsewhere in the video, a sign saying "Lov U Fresh Prince" later morphs into what looks like "Lov U Fr6sh Crince."
It's unclear whether the footage is AI-generated. Mashable reached out to YouTube and a rep for Smith to verify these claims. Regardless, many viewers are convinced it's AI. The advancement of AI video generators like Google's Veo 3 and upstarts like Kling, Pika, and Luma make it harder and harder to tell the difference between what's real and AI-generated. That's created an effect online where people question the validity of videos and images. To complicate things, a rise in engagement-farming accounts has flooded the web with fake, attention-grabbing content, also known as AI slop.
Whether or not it's explicitly AI, the mainstream adoption of AI-generated videos conjures strong reactions from people.
Backlash to AI-generated videos isn't always about fans feeling deceived. It's also a question of taste. At a recent concert, rock icon Rod Stewart played an AI-generated video of the late Ozzy Osbourne in heaven with other dead artists like Tupac and Bob Marley, with one user calling it "a new low." Journalist Jim Acosta recently "interviewed" an AI version of a teenager killed in the Parkland Shooting, and was accused of crossing an ethical line and exploiting the victim's family.
Smith's tour continues in the UK for the next few nights, and then on to Paris. Should we expect to see more questionable signs and morphed body parts?
Topics Artificial Intelligence YouTube
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.
