Taylor Swift Fans Demand Clarity on AI Use in Promo Videos

Fans of Taylor Swift are good at discerning imagery, uncovering Easter eggs and reverse engineering ambiguous song lyrics. But her newest marketing push for The Life of a Showgirl has resulted in an altogether different kind of a puzzle: was there a use of artificial intelligence?

Fans Discover Oddities in Visual Glitches of Scavenger Hunt Clips

It began with a scavenger hunt run by Google sending fans on the chase for QR codes attached to 12 orange doors in 12 cities throughout the world. Each QR code sent fans to a cryptic video clue that led them eventually to the lyric video accompaniment to the album’s first track “The Fate of Ophelia”. But as the die-hard Swift fans began reviewing and watching the clips, a few of them discovered some rather unusual features relative to the images that were seen. In fact, the writing that they witnessed in the videos flickered in a strange way. The objects would disappear or strangely behave.

The backgrounds did not behave in a physical way that could be construed as being correct. The accusations of the use of generative A.I. began occurring on X tagged with #SwiftiesAgainstAI. As well, the clips were uploaded as YouTube Shorts on Swift’s official channel and were later taken away. The official lyric videos and the music video accompaniment to The Fate of Ophelia which had been released does contain obvious hand made features such as props that had been painted are all continuing visible and disclosed as containing no artificial intelligence.

Swift herself did not comment on the nature of the orange door marketing scheme, nor had Google at this point made any comment to shine any light on it.

Swift’s Own AI Experience Causes the Backlash

There is a heightened sensitivity about it with the fan base of Swift. She was previously targeted by deepfake AI imagery, and she’s been a vocal advocate of artists owning their creative work. Her fans cited that stance as part of the reason this particular ad campaign feels so out of step. “When so much effort has gone into promo for the album,” one fan said in a TikTok, “I think it’s very, very lazy and disappointing to use generative AI for videos that a human being very much could have done.”

Others joined in with direct appeals. One user on X with “taywarrior” in their bio called out Taylor Nation for using AI in this ad campaign and warned of the environmental toll. “A.I has a HUGE impact on the environment and wildlife because of its LARGE water consumption and more,” they wrote. “Please learn better next time.” Fans on Reddit debated whether or not the clips could have been created with CGI instead of AI. But a great number of them pointed out that typical computer graphics do not result in the sort of anomalies seen here in the door clips, such as disappearing limbs, warped geometry, or strange and fluid movement of text, etc.

Swift has yet to respond to their questioning in public. A representative didn’t comment, Google has been mum as well. It’s her fans, often her most ardent defense team, who are now leading the charge wanting transparency. Meanwhile, The Life of a Showgirl continues selling very well commercially. It topped charts on Spotify, sold 2.7 million copies on its first day of release, and is already one of 2025’s biggest successes.

Critical reviews have been mixed however, with publications like The Hollywood Reporter questioning the album’s lyrical depth. The talk of AI and creative integrity continues growing in all of entertainment—in the industry as generative tools raise new legal and ethical dilemmas. From lawsuits regarding data scraping to criticism by unions and studios, artists are trying to navigate an ever changing landscape. For now, Swift’s fans are left to speculate, dissect and wait—waiting not only for the next clue regarding the next album, but also for a clear and concise answer as to where their favorite artist stands on the subject of AI.