Will Smith’s bid to relaunch his rap career has been overshadowed by a new controversy: accusations the actor and musician used artificial intelligence to fabricate cheering crowds in promotional videos.
Clips posted to Smith’s official YouTube channel this month showed dense audiences chanting his name and waving their hands in unison during performances. But some viewers and social-media users quickly suggested the footage appeared digitally generated, pointing to glitches and the repeated, uniform motion of fans in the background. The claims have fueled speculation Smith’s comeback tour may not be attracting the kind of organic support he’d hoped for.
“Okay, this guy definitely has a humiliation fetish,” one commenter wrote on his YouTube channel. “No other explanation for releasing a crowd of AI abominations holding up misspelled signs about how he saved their lives.”
“Imagine being this rich and famous and having to use AI footage of crowds and bot comments on your video,” another commenter wrote. “Tragic, man. You used to be cool.”
Representatives for Smith have not publicly addressed the criticism. The videos, however, remain online.
I, robot?
The alleged use of AI-generated crowds comes at a delicate moment for Smith, 56, who first broke into music in the mid-1980s as part of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. The group’s clean, narrative-driven style helped bring rap into the mainstream, with hits like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Summertime” each winning a Grammy, which turned Smith into one of the most recognizable rap voices of his generation.
After transitioning to acting, Smith’s film career eclipsed his music output, though he continued to release solo albums in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Tracks such as “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and “Miami” cemented his crossover status as one of the few rappers who could dominate both the charts and Hollywood box office. But he has not released a major rap project in more than a decade.
His latest foray into music comes amid a broader attempt to rebuild his public image following the 2022 Academy Awards, when he slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage in response to a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The incident led to a 10-year ban from attending the Oscars and triggered a wave of backlash that sharply curtailed new opportunities. While Smith has since returned to acting—most recently with the release of Bad Boys: Ride or Die—the shadow of the altercation continues to linger.
While it makes sense that Smith might return to his rap roots to regain control of the narrative surrounding his career, the AI controversy risks undermining that effort. The use of synthetic audiences suggests a lack of confidence in his own popularity, and might hurt his attempt to come across as authentic.
Smith is currently on tour in the U.K.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
