Crowd footage from a Will Smith concert went viral due to all the AI slop in it such as monstrous faces, mangled text, swarming flesh tesseracts, the usual. All of which suggests that Smith is using technology to add sparkle to his fading stardom. But the crowds were real, Andy Baio demonstrates, making a mystery of the unpleasant enhancements applied in post. The uncanniest part? Irrespective of whatever Smith's video people did, YouTube appears to be applying AI to uploads automatically, and its explanation is sketchy. It denies using "GenAI" or "upscaling" but admits to using "machine learning," with the implication that it's what most people would consider "AI" after all.
"Virtually all of the commenters on YouTube, Reddit, and X believe this was fake footage of fake fans, generated by Will Smith's team to prop up a lackluster tour," Baio writes. "Like the faces in the video, the truth is blurry."
My YouTube homepage is now all grossly-sharpened and crudely-edited clips of TV shows, complete with inappropriate music and inaccurate subtitles. I noticed lately that they were taking on the deepfried look and wondered if that was the result of YouTube automatically reapplying what had already been applied by the uploaders.
Will Smith's concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines [Waxy.org]
