Will Smith Accused of Creating an AI Crowd for Tour Video

Footage from Will Smith‘s comeback Based on a True Story tour has got perceptive online viewers pointing out curious happenings among the crowd.

Compiled of clips from his shows on tour, one shot includes fans holding up a sign that reads “We <3 You Willy” but some images of the faces around it are distorted and blurred. Others online have claimed some audience members have been bestowed extra fingers or oddly formed hands.

While some have accused the Prince of Bel Air of using artificial intelligence to beef up shots of the crowd, there have been reports of YouTube artificially altering videos uploaded to the platform without the creators’ knowledge. In a story published in The Atlantic last week, YouTuber Rhett Shull said that he believes that YouTube is using “AI upscaling” on his videos, which involves dialing up an image’s resolution and detail. “I think it’s gonna lead people to think that I am using AI to create my videos. Or that it’s been deepfaked. Or that I’m cutting corners somehow,” he told the publication. “It will inevitably erode viewers’ trust in my content.”

A rep for Smith and a rep for YouTube did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment.

The line between reality and illusions have blurred as AI floods the internet, from fake bands to artificially generated songs to bogus photos of music legends — including a completely imagined capture of Mick Jagger, Elton John, and Rod Stewart harmonizing at Ozzy Osbourne’s memorial service.

Last month, The AI band The Velvet Sundown went viral and garnered a flurry of media coverage after suddenly appearing on popular Spotify playlists. The band also inspired an apparent hoaxer who said he impersonated the band on X and falsely claimed to be a band spokesperson during interactions with the media, including a phone interview with Rolling Stone.

The Velvet Sundown later put out a band bio calling itself “a synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence,” adding: “This isn’t a trick — it’s a mirror. An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity, and the future of music itself in the age of AI.”

Many artists have called out the use of AI, with SZA criticizing the damaging use of AI programs that consume vital resources to function, such as ChatGPT and Elon Musk’s chatbot, Grok.

From Rolling Stone US.