Will Smith’s concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines
This minute-long clip of a Will Smith concert is blowing up online for all the wrong reasons, with people accusing him of using AI to generate fake crowds filled with fake fans carrying fake signs. In the last day, the story’s been covered by Rolling Stone, VIBE, NME, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mail, The Independent, Mashable, and Consequence of Sound.
And it definitely looks terrible! The faces have all the characteristics of AI slop, with familiar artifacts like uncanny features, smeared faces, multiple fingers/limbs, and nonsensical signage. “From West Philly to West Swig̴̙̕g̷̤̔͜y”?
But here’s where things get complicated.
The crowds are real. Every person you see in the video above started out as real footage of real fans, sourced from multiple Will Smith concerts during his recent European tour.
Bluesky blocks all of Mississippi over new age verification law
— the next stage of the Splinternet: every social site must now somehow verify the identity of every user or block entire states/countries #Kristie De Garis on community protest and solidarity in Wplace
— their server has been down for days, but the pixel-art layer drawn over the world map tells a thousand stories #“I’ve got a solution: wolves”
— improve every stupid newspaper op-ed headline with this one simple trick #Reddit will block the Internet Archive
— they say because AI companies are scraping data from the IA instead of paying Reddit directly #Vote on the 2025 Tiny Awards Finalists
For the third year, the Tiny Awards have released their list of finalists that represent “the best of the small, poetic, creative, handmade web.” Voting is now open and runs until the end of this month, closing on September 1.
I was on the judging committee this year, returning after a year away to focus on the final XOXO, and helped narrow down the finalists from 176 nominated websites.
I love this little low-stakes contest, and the experience of being bombarded with so many great weird experimental projects is an honor for me.
Like my roundup two years ago, here’s a little about each of this year’s 11 finalists to help inform your vote.