ARTIFICIAL AUDIENCE

Will Smith Accused of Using Fake AI Audience for Tour Video

Fans are calling out the Hollywood star for allegedly using AI to manufacture hype for the 56-year-old’s world tour.

Will Smith, 56, is being blasted for allegedly using AI to generate footage of a packed stadium audience to promote his Based on a True Story world tour on YouTube Shorts. In the video, Smith sings to an emotional, adoring audience that is inconsistently lit, oddly warped, and holding aloft disproportionately large signs. Some fans highlighted in the video seem to glitch and melt together; one teary-eyed man holding a sign reading “‘You Can Make It’ helped me survive cancer. THX Will” has his right hand merging with the hand of a woman in front of him, whose wrist threads through the headband of a woman next to her. The video is captioned: “My favourite part of tour is seeing you all up close. Thank you for seeing me too.” The Daily Beast has reached out to Smith’s representatives for comment. Yet, the incident may not entirely be Smith’s fault: According to The Atlantic, there have been some reports of YouTube artificially augmenting videos uploaded to the platform without the creators’ knowledge. The 2025 album from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air marks his first musical release in two decades, which responds to the backlash following his notorious Oscar gaffe, and received low to mixed reviews.