Did Will Smith feature AI-generated fans in his tour video? Viral claim explored

Will Smith’s new concert footage has sparked controversy after fans accused the actor and rapper of using AI-generated audiences in a promotional video shared on social media.

The clip, posted last week to his official accounts, shows Will Smith performing You Can Make It from his recent album, Based on a True Story. At several points, the camera cuts to cheering crowds holding up their signs and posters.

However, some viewers noted distortions in the footage, including blurred faces, extra fingers, and odd artifacts, which led to claims that the video relied on artificial intelligence. The debate gained traction between August 25 and 26, 2025, with coverage in outlets including HotNewHipHop, The Independent, and Waxy.

Analysis by Waxy, along with updates by YouTube's Liaison shared via X (formerly Twitter), shows that while some still shots of the audience may have been animated by Smith's team and YouTube, the videos themselves are not AI-generated.

More about the AI accusations on Will Smith

According to HotNewHipHop on August 25, 2025, the accusation of using AI-generated concert clips began after Will Smith uploaded a montage from his Based on a True Story tour to Instagram. The clip showed him performing You Can Make It while audience members displayed signs, one of which read:

“‘You Can Make It’ helped me survive cancer. THX Will.”

Fans online quickly pointed to irregularities. saying that the crowd looked like AI and that parts of the footage, for example, a section referencing Will Smith’s “From West Philly” background, looked artificially generated.

On August 26, 2025, the Independent reported similar concerns after a version of the video appeared on YouTube. The report highlighted blurred faces, distorted limbs, and oddly rendered hands, including one instance where a woman’s headband seemed to overlap another person’s wrist.

The Independent described the crowd as looking “AI-generated,” prompting further scrutiny. Will Smith’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the publication.

Later reports suggest the crowds were real, but AI enhancements caused distortions

While online speculation suggested that Will Smith had fabricated audiences, on August 25, 2025, Waxy published an explainer showing how the crowds were real, but appeared AI-generated for a few reasons.

The report traced many of the shots in the viral montage back to actual performances from Will Smith’s European festival appearances, including the Positiv Festival in France, Gurtenfestival and Paléo Festival in Switzerland, and Ronquières Festival in Belgium. Official photographs from these shows confirm that the fans and signs existed.

However, Waxy concluded that Smith’s team likely used generative tools to animate still photos of these audiences, turning them into short video clips. The process introduced familiar AI artifacts: smeared faces, garbled text, and distorted body parts. The outlet suggested that some of the footage may have been further degraded by YouTube’s experimental video enhancement system, which sharpens and denoises Shorts using machine learning.

YouTube confirmed to The Atlantic earlier in August that such processing was being tested, though it denied using generative AI. YouTube Creator Liaison also confirmed this via X (formerly Twitter).

According to Waxy, in the case of Smith, the crowds were real.

The AI controversy comes as Smith is in the middle of his first headlining tour. His album Based on a True Story was released in March 2025, marking his first studio project in two decades since Lost and Found (2005). The album includes collaborations with Big Sean, Russ, Joyner Lucas, and his son, Jaden.

The tour began in June 2025 and is scheduled to continue through September. Smith’s UK leg kicked off in Scarborough on August 24, followed by performances in Manchester, London, and Wolverhampton.

About the author

Devangee Halder is a Food and Pop culture writer at Sportskeeda. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's Degree in International Studies. A bibliophile and foodie, her academic background, with the intersection of history and cultural studies, has deepened her love for reading and writing.

With over a year of experience, including an internship at Indian Express, which she landed through correspondence with editor Raj Kumar Jha, she transitioned into her current role at this company. As a journalist covering gastronomic trends and other news from the F&B Industry, she veers away from prescriptivism, and instead prioritizes questioning of current narratives, and forwarding relevant news, ensuring they are devoid of sensationalism.

Devangee approaches food with an interdisciplinary lens, locating it vis-à-vis areas such as culture, history, memory, and economics, within which culinary traditions found fruition and subsequently flourished. When not working, she enjoys cooking and reading, alongside her newfound interest in weightlifting. Among her favorite personalities are Sarah Todd and Vikas Khanna, and she admires the late chef Jock Zonfrillo for his work on indigenous food habits and ingredients.

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Edited by Ahana Mukhopadhyay