Are Will Smith’s concert videos AI? Tech mimics art, and also our love of it
Now this is a story all about how Will Smith may have unashamedly used AI to simulate a crowd responding well to his music.
You’re probably reading this and wondering whether or not the words and the by-product of a machine. Don’t worry about it, I won’t take any personal offence, but it is interesting that a few years ago this thought would never have crossed your mind.
There has never been a quicker technological advancement in the history of humankind than the rise of AI. Overnight, it went from being the stuff of sci-fi legend to a reality. All of sudden, schools had to adapt to ensure their kids weren’t cheating, newspapers had to implement AI scanners to make sure their writers’ efforts were legitimate, and the artistic world had to work out how it could continue to exist while AI was generating music, text, and graphics completely free that would usually take hours, days even, in a matter of moments.
The world has adjusted slightly, but not enough just yet, and the future of how we coexist alongside AI remains in contention. It seems that the conversation which persistently plagues the world of art in the modern age is how the implementation of artificial intelligence is going to impact the industry moving forward, and whether or not it could ever be used in a positive way.
This writer, personally, doesn’t think that it could (in the world of art, that is). There are plenty of tech heads and optimists who insist that AI will only enhance the artistic world and that its use will be a good thing for progress, but I simply can’t see that being the case. Yes, there has been push-back on the use of technology in the arts in the past, as the electric guitar, synthesiser and DJ turntables were all met with raised eyebrows and tuts from artistic purists, but this feels different, as this is the first technological advancement that removes human connection as we know it.
For me to effectively make my point, we must first ask, what is the point of art? This isn’t a new question; it’s one which has been pondered over for generations now, and one which I likely won’t be able to shed light on that isn’t already shining. Though scholars who have more intellectual know-how than I have formerly offered up their opinions to no objective avail, I would still like to throw my hat into the ring: Art is important because it makes what is fundamentally a lonely world less so.
Even if you are surrounded by friends and family who you trust dearly, the heart of the matter remains that the majority of your life is spent inside your own head. During periods when you’re on your own, or feel like so, the only thing you have is your own thoughts, and at times, that can exacerbate the isolation. Art comes along and acknowledges those thoughts for you in a way that you want to engage with. This isn’t a therapy session, this isn’t something daunting, this is just a song, a painting, a film that understands you and that you can turn to whenever you need.
In his book, What’s Love Got to Do With It?: Emotions and Relationships in Popular Songs, sociologist Thomas J Scheff explores the connections that people make with artists through their work. “Popular love lyrics present a picture of an imagined social-emotional world, and modern societies tend to ignore this world,” he explained, “Since modern societies are highly individualistic, the nature of relationships usually takes a backseat. Modern societies focus on the self-reliant individual.”
While Scheff is talking specifically about love, his findings apply to every emotion the human psyche is capable of. Your feelings are dragged from the inside of your mind and laid flat out in front of you. You feel acknowledged, and you suddenly have company in a life that is so often spent in isolation.
I would argue that this connection can only be established between humans. A human mind needs to be behind the creation and consumption of such art for it to fulfil its purpose. I have always found comfort in the idea that artists are aware of this as well, on a conscious or subconscious level, and it’s for this reason that I find it so disappointing that creatives are willingly using AI in the development of their work. It seems to nullify the whole point of the medium, and severs the connection I have held so dear with it my whole life.
Artists using AI in the creation of art is one thing, but Will Smith appears to have taken this to another level, as in a video he posted on his social media recently, it appears he is using it to simulate the consumption of art as well as the creation of it. He shared a video of him performing at recent concerts, which shows the camera panning to and from him and the crowd. While the shots of Smith himself look legitimate enough, those of the crowd appear suspicious.
In the footage, faces appear blurred, the movement of the crowd looks odd, and the whole video seems strange. Far Out sent the footage to Jesse Glass, the lead AI researcher at DecideAI, who analysed the clip to see if it was AI or not.
Here’s what he had to say: “It’s possible to train AI models to detect if a video clip is an output of the model; however, it requires access to the model and tons of generated content and not generated content. As a viewer, it shows several characteristics in the clips: their length, their movement, the lack of audio, and the people’s expressions that lend strength to the suspicion that this reel was augmented with AI clips.”
Talking about the expansion in the sector, he outlined, “In tandem with the growth we have seen around LLMs [Large Language Models], we have seen users be able to discern chatbots from authentic speech. Despite LLMs (in this case, VLMs [Video Language Models]) getting better, humans are getting better at detecting them. Authenticity in the time of AI-generated content is a troublesome issue with meaningful ramifications that many people have been concerned about for some time.”
While we cannot say for certain whether or not the clip is AI, as Glass points out, there are a number of factors which point towards that being the case. This is disturbing on an artistic level, but even more so when you consider the fact that one of the signs a fan holds up reads: “‘You Can Make It’ helped me survive cancer. THX WILL”. Who am I to say whether or not Will Smith’s music has helped people through difficult times in their life, but the idea that an artist manipulates footage to make that look like the case is bordering on evil.
To re-emphasise, it’s difficult to say with 100% certainty whether or not the clip is AI, but there are telltale signs that it could be. Even if it’s not, the fact that we are discussing it shows just how much of a possibility such a move is. I have no doubt that AI will do great things for us as a society, but its heavy involvement in the production of art, and now apparently its perceived consumption, is incredibly troubling.
Did Will Smith use AI to make his concerts look better than they actually are? It looks like that may well be the case. And ain’t that just a slap in the face?
