Hot off the heels of her new album, pop superstar Taylor Swift has been accused of using AI slop to promote the record.
As part of a treasure hunt-style promo, Swift challenged her fans to find 12 “orange doors” spread across 12 cities and scan accompanying QR codes. These codes unlock short videos, one of which has been making its rounds on social media — for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately.
One clip, which features an Art Nouveau-style bar — presumably meant to invoke the album’s title, “Life of a Showgirl” — bears the now-infamous hallmarks of generative AI use. As eagle-eyed internet sleuths spotted, a framed picture on the wall features a garbled depiction of a house, and a book is mysteriously missing letters. At one point, the bartender’s middle finger mysteriously blends with the orange napkin he’s placing on the bar counter.
Another video, linked via a QR code in Barcelona, Spain and showing what seems to be a gym located in a high-rise building, also shows signs of having been generated with AI, such as dumbbells with weights and handles that don’t align correctly.
Other clips included in the series of 12 videos also appear to have been generated by AI.
The official copies of the videos, as featured on YouTube Shorts, have since been taken down, but it’s unclear why. Futurism has reached out to Swift’s publicist for clarification.
The use of AI is striking given the astronomical resources at Swift’s disposal. The multibillionaire has built an enormous media empire, with her Eras Tour breaking records for becoming the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. As such, netizens were outraged.
“She’s far too rich to be this f***ing cheap,” one Reddit user seethed.
Others pointed out a glaring double standard, with Swift advocating for fair pay, once again reigniting a fiery debate over generative AI replacing human labor and creativity.
Swift was also at the center of a major deepfake controversy last year, with users on X-formerly-Twitter sharing explicit AI-generated images of her in droves. Later, AI deepfakes featuring her likeness to drum up support for then-presidential candidate Trump surfaced.
“It really conjured up my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” she wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
“The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she added.
Most recently, OpenAI’s latest release of its text-to-video AI generator, dubbed Sora 2, has brought the discussion to the forefront. The TikTok-style app exclusively features a virtually infinite stream of lazily generated and problematic AI slop.
“For someone who has made a big deal about how artists aren’t paid appropriately for like, most of her career, this is tone deaf AF,” another user wrote.
“I love her, but Taylor, girl, read the room,” they added.
More on Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift Slams Republican Use of AI to Deepfake Her Into Endorsing Trump
