For the discharge of her twelfth album, “The Lifetime of a Showgirl,” Taylor Swift despatched followers on a web-based scavenger hunt this weekend, which started by trying to find “Taylor Swift” on Google. However as followers unveiled secret movies as a part of the marketing campaign, some fretted that the clips seemed like they had been AI-generated — and so they weren’t happy.
A Google seek for the singer’s title yields a cryptic message: “12 cities, 12 doorways, 1 video to unlock.”
Followers had to determine the situation of the doorways, then bodily discover them and scan a QR code, which surfaced 12 distinctive movies that contained the clues wanted to unravel the puzzle. When followers Googled the right phrase, one other orange door appeared, which followers needed to collectively “knock” on by clicking 12 million instances. Lastly, the door “opened,” revealing a lyric video for “The Destiny of Ophelia,” which has its personal orange door progress bar on YouTube.
YouTube had scored the video unique for the observe, in addition to the lyric movies from the remaining songs on the brand new album.
Google initially introduced the scavenger hunt in a video on Instagram. The video begins with an aerial view of Earth, then rapidly zooms in on a hilly, bejeweled panorama, till we see an orange door, overlayed with a Google search bar.
Whereas Swifties love a puzzle, some had been rubbed the mistaken means by the 12 clue-containing movies, which appeared to be AI-generated.
As an alternative of trying to find clues to unveil Swift’s new lyric video, as Swift meant, some followers started to scour the video clips like detectives, on the lookout for indicators that the scenes had been artificial. Nevertheless, whereas there are clips that look computer-generated, it’s unclear in the event that they had been made utilizing AI, and if that’s the case, to what extent.
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It will make sense if these movies had been generated utilizing Google’s AI merchandise. As OpenAI reveals off its new Sora 2 video generator, this Taylor Swift collaboration can be a serendipitous alternative for Google to indicate hundreds of thousands of Swifties what its Veo 3 mannequin can do.
Google didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for touch upon how these movies had been generated or if Swift and Google labored collectively on this activation through the use of Google’s personal AI expertise. However Swift’s workforce and Google have teamed up for related promotional actions previously, we should always word.
The usage of AI in artistic works is a delicate topic. Some artists assume these instruments may also help them, whereas others have protested the style during which massive language fashions are skilled on their work with out consent, successfully utilizing artists’ personal work to create the expertise that might threaten their livelihoods.
Even Swift herself spoke out in regards to the risks of AI after President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated picture of her displaying help for his marketing campaign final 12 months; the incident spurred her to submit an endorsement for former Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran towards Trump in 2024.
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