Will Smith's bid to restart his rap career has been overshadowed by new controversy. Actors and musicians used artificial intelligence to create a cheering crowd with promotional videos.
A clip posted to Smith's official YouTube channel this month showed a dense audience waving in unison, chanting his name during the performance. However, some viewers and social media users quickly suggested that digitally generated footage be digitally generated, pointing to the repetitive uniform movement of glitches and background fans. The claims spurred speculation that Smith's comeback tour may not attract the kind of organic support he wanted.
“Well, this guy definitely has a humiliating fetish,” one commenter wrote on his YouTube channel. “There is no other explanation for releasing the AI hatred crowd who holds missed signs of how he saved their lives.”
“Imagine this rich and famous and having to use AI footage of crowds and bot comments on your video,” another commenter wrote. “Tragic, man. You were cool.”
Smith's representatives have not publicly addressed the criticism. However, the video remains online.
Me, a robot?
The suspicion of AI-generated crowd use becomes a delicate moment for Smith, 56, who first invaded music in the mid-1980s as part of hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. The group's clean, story-driven style helped make rap mainstream. Each of them had hits such as “My Parents Just Don't Understand” and “Daytime,” which transformed Smith into one of the most famous rap voices of his generation.
After moving to acting, Smith's film career devoured his musical output, but he continued to release solo albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Tracks like “Gettin' Jiggy Wit It” and “Miami” solidified crossover status as one of the few rappers who can dominate both the charts and the Hollywood box office. However, he has not released any major rap projects for over a decade.
His latest foray into music followed the 2022 Academy Awards, in response to a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage. The incident caused a wave of backlash that banned attendance at the Oscars for a decade and sharply reduced new opportunities. Smith has since returned to acting, but with a recent release Bad Boys: Riding or Die– The shadow of the argument continues.
It makes sense that Smith might return to his rap roots to regain control of the story surrounding his career, but the AI controversy risks undermining that effort. The use of synthetic viewers suggests a lack of confidence in his own popularity, and may undermine his attempts to come across as authentic.
Smith is currently on tour in the UK
For this story, luck Generated AI was used to assist with initial drafts. The editors checked the accuracy of the information prior to publication.
