Taylor Swift fans are known for looking for secret messages in her videos and social media posts. But after the release of her new album The Life of a Showgirl, some fans began to think that artificial intelligence was used in a set of short videos made to promote the album.
The 12 videos were part of a scavenger hunt created by Google. Fans had to find 12 orange doors placed in 12 cities around the world. Each door had a QR code that led to a short video clue. When fans put all the clues together, they found the lyric video for the song The Fate of Ophelia, which is the first track on the album.
Some fans noticed strange things in the videos, like text that looked wrong, objects that disappeared, or movements that did not look real. They started using the hashtag #SwiftiesAgainstAI to share their thoughts and said the videos looked like they were made with AI.
Taylor Swift did not personally promote the orange door campaign, and no one knows how much she was involved in making the videos. The clips were briefly uploaded to her YouTube channel but have since been removed. Other videos from The Life of a Showgirl, including the official music video for The Fate of Ophelia and the lyric videos, are still available and do not use AI.
Fans were obviously disappointed because Taylor has always supported artists’ rights and has been a victim of fake AI images in the past. Many fans felt that using AI went against what she stands for. They also noted that her Fate of Ophelia video used real, hand-painted props, showing her usual attention to detail.
A fan named Rachel Lord said in a TikTok video, “When so much effort has been put into the rest of the album, I think it is lazy and disappointing to use generative AI to make videos that a real person could have done.” She added that fans need to speak up if they do not agree with this kind of promotion.
Another said, “I think it’s very important that we as fans talk about how much we disagree with this, because if we don’t talk about it, they’re just going to continue with it.”
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