Will Smith has come in for heavy criticism after appearing to use AI in a promotional video for his summer 2025 tour.
The famous actor and rapper, 56, started the UK leg of his Based On a True Story tour on Sunday night, with Monday night’s show all set to go ahead in Cardiff.
An album of the same name – his first studio album in 20 years – was released earlier this year, but didn’t chart in the UK and was largely panned by music critics.
Ahead of the live dates, which will see Will play Manchester and London after Cardiff tonight before moving on to the University of Wolverhampton, he released a promotional video on Instagram.
To accompany the video, Will sent a message to his fans, saying: ‘My favourite part of tour is seeing you all up close. Thank you for seeing me too.’
But over the past few days, more and more fans have accused the Men In Black star of using AI to enhance the video after noticing bizarre incidents in the background.
Some of the footage appears to show fans with blurred faces, while other moments see Will apparently running through peoples’ outstretched arms as if they’re not there.
One moment from the video which has confused and transfixed fans features an emotional man holding a sign that says ‘You Can Make It helped me survive cancer. THX WILL’.
A woman in front of the man appears to be holding his hand while a headband worn by a different person in the crowd is shown to be going through her arm.
People in the comments were quick to notice, with QueenTafari accusing, ‘Half of the footage is AI,’ while TibbyTappy implored the Fresh Prince star to stop using AI.
Rho3685 commented, ‘The AI on this is horrible’, while MicronautGirl sent a facepalm emoji and said: ‘An AI crowd being posted on the official page is mad embarrassing.’
BoxNemo speculated on Reddit: ‘This is a weird one as his tour seems to have been going well but for some reason his team have decided to use AI crowds for chunks of this clip.’
Embarrassed-Ideal-18 said: ‘It looks like image upscaling gone horribly wrong. I’d guess those are real people who now get to see what a melted waxwork of themselves would be like.’
The UK leg of the tour is said to have been a success thus far, but the live performances have come during a period of uncertainty in Will’s acting career.
Michael Bay, who has worked with Will on numerous projects in the past – including the first two Bad Boys films – has apparently stepped away from their most recent collaboration.
It has been reported that Bay has left the film – titled Fast and Loose – after he and Smith disagreed over the tone the narrative should take, with Netflix apparently looking for a replacement filmmaker already.
Metro has contacted Will Smith’s representatives for comment.
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