Rolling Stones’ AI video sparks backlash from fans

You know the backlash against artificial intelligence is in full swing when a venerable rock band uses some amazing technology in the video for their latest single, but many of their die-hard fans aren’t amused.

The three surviving members of the Rolling Stones range in age from the late ’70s to early ’80s, and appear as their 1970s selves in the video for “In the Stars,” thanks to AI that replaced the faces of the Kagemusha and performers with the faces of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood. It was a mini-concert in the heart of the uncanny valley, drawing reactions ranging from awe to ridicule to disgust.

The reaction is part of a vocal opposition to AI in general, with opponents citing environmental impacts. Theft of intellectual property as part of AI training. Jobs will be lost in many sectors of the economy. And with large data centers consuming gigawatts of power, electricity bills skyrocket.

A Stones song may be just rock’n’roll, but when AI is involved, many people don’t like it.

The video for “In the Stars,” one of the first two singles released from the band’s upcoming album Foreign Tongues, was released on YouTube on May 14th. The effect was produced by Deep Voodoo, an AI-focused technology startup founded by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the TV show “South Park.” Deep Voodoo was also hired to age musician Billy Joel for his 2024 song “Turn the Lights Back On,” and to transform rapper Kendrick Lamar into OJ Simpson, Will Smith, Kanye West and more for “The Heart Part 5.”

And this is the second video of the Stones, who have been performing together for some 64 years, making them look much younger than their current ages (Wood is 78, Jagger and Richards are 82). French director François Rousselet, who directed ‘In the Stars’, also directed the 2023 video for ‘Angry’, the first single from the band’s previous album ‘Hackney Diamonds’.

In it, actress Sydney Sweeney cruises down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in a red top-down convertible and jams to a Stones song. A giant billboard overhead displays videos of each era of the Stones, with effects that make it look like different Jaguars are singing the lyrics to new songs.

Comparing the two videos, it’s clear how far AI has come in just a few years. The young Stones’ video version of ‘Angry’ shows clear signs of AI manipulation. There’s the waxy face, Jagger’s mouth that doesn’t quite match the song’s lyrics, and the way Richards and Woods move too fluidly on their guitars.

In contrast, “In the Stars” is more realistic. Dozens of other musicians appear to perform the song alongside the Stones on a vast soundstage, including an army of drummers to replace the late great Charlie Watts, and members of a British band called Hot Property play Jagger, Richards and Wood. The AI ​​puts the Stones’ face on the trio, often to surprising effect.

Singer Luka Arshad, who plays Jagger, replicates the older frontman’s movements so well that many early news accounts inaccurately described the process as de-aging, which involves Jagger’s wrinkled face becoming young again. That’s not what’s happening – there’s no evidence that the Stones were there during filming.

That’s all well and good, but AI can also “tell.” In one scene, actress Odessa Azion, who co-starred in the Oscar-nominated movie Marty Supreme, dances to the video version of Jaguar and licks his face. Close up, it’s easy to see that the mouth, teeth and nose are not his. Additionally, the faces of the men playing Richards and Wood were uncharacteristically emotionless. If you’ve ever seen the Stones play live, you know that these two guitarists are never this indifferent.

Also, Keith Richards never looked healthy in the 70s.

Even though the song is a banger and I think it’s the best thing the Stones have done in their last two albums, the heavy AI lean in the video left many fans cold. If you read the comments on the YouTube video and the version posted on Instagram, the reactions range from excitement to dismay to outright outrage. Some are quite interesting. My favorite is “AI cannot be satisfied.”

The video was released the same week, adding to the already growing backlash against AI. Concerns about the AI ​​data center’s water and electricity oversupply are organizing people to oppose the massive facility being built nearby. The technology is wreaking havoc on the job market and workplace, and litigation continues over training AI models using copyrighted text, images, art, and video.

• The day after the “In the Stars” video was released, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was giving a commencement speech at the University of Arizona in Phoenix. There were loud boos when he started talking about how AI will impact students’ futures and how it will ultimately affect them. At Glendale Community College in suburban Phoenix, an AI used to read out the names of graduates as they crossed the stage during a graduation ceremony, but it mispronounced many of the names, prompting boos and ultimately an apology from the school’s president.
• On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal detailed the fights across the country where voters are opposing large data center plans and how the movement is starting to impact both local and national elections. Polls show that American residents are increasingly unhappy with noise and pollution and don’t want data centers in their backyards. The backlash in arid regions stems from resentment over the massive use of water needed to cool the powerful chips used in AI servers. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen something escalate so quickly,” the magazine quoted Gregory Ferenstein, who conducted the recent poll with other researchers, about the backlash.
• A Pew Research Center study found that while Americans are using AI products, they are wary of their effects. Only 10% said they were more excited than anxious. Most students claim that AI cheating is rampant, and so do their schools, and a recent graduate of Stanford University, perhaps the academic nexus of the AI ​​explosion, wrote in an essay for the New York Times that AI cheating has become “ubiquitous” and is ruining advanced classes.
• And as Houston Chronicle business reporter Claire Hao reported on Monday, a new University of Houston poll shows Houstonians are using AI but don’t want data centers powering their neighborhoods.

These bullet points are just the tip of the iceberg. I have long considered myself a techno-optimist and believe that, like all innovative technologies, AI will have both benefits and detriments to our culture and society. But for many, the scales seem to be tipping towards the latter.

With the deepfake of their “In the Stars” video, the Stones may just be trying to emphasize that they’re timeless artists. But amid the waves of frustration, fear, and anger surrounding AI, we don’t always get what we want.

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