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Will Smith's concert crowds are real, but AI is blurring the lines

(waxy.org)
363 points jay_kyburz | 2 comments | 26 Aug 25 04:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.686s | source
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jader201 ◴[26 Aug 25 06:17 UTC] No.45022891[source]▶
Two root comments (so far) are focusing on YouTube, but the article claims most of the AI was done by Will’s team, using AI to convert stills to video:

> The video features real performances and real audiences, but I believe they were manipulated on two levels:

1. Will Smith’s team generated several short AI image-to-video clips from professionally-shot audience photos

2. YouTube post-processed the resulting Shorts montage, making everything look so much worse

You can see the side-by-side [1] of the YouTube post-processing, and, while definitely altering the original, isn’t what’s causing most of the really bad AI artifacts.

Most of what YouTube appears to be doing is making it less blurry, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not. And, even with that, it is only done on Shorts.

[1] https://youtu.be/Bx5GzIsmEBI

replies(1): >>45025282 #
1. tantalor ◴[26 Aug 25 11:55 UTC] No.45025282[source]▶
I don't see any differences in that video
replies(1): >>45025633 #
2. jader201 ◴[26 Aug 25 12:31 UTC] No.45025633[source]▶
Yeah, it’s definitely subtle, for the most part. But if you pause it and move it around frames, you can definitely see where post processing attempted to sharpen some of the out-of-focus parts.

But, again, the AI artifacts are from taking still shots and using AI to generate videos, which was done separately/intentionally by Will’s team (according to the article).