Controversy erupted shortly after the release of Taylor Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl. The following night, fans noticed that a message would appear when you searched “Taylor Swift” on Google. This message revealed that there were 12 orange doors in 12 different cities across the world. Fans then began to search in these cities to try and find out what it could mean. 

When the doors were found, there was a QR code in the middle. Once scanned, they led to individual YouTube Shorts that seemed to each spell out a different word. Soon after, fans started to realize that something in these videos seemed off– they looked AI generated. 

A hybrid of a squirrel/chipmunk and messed up words on a treadmill were the first warning signs of AI use. As more videos were found, more “AI slop” was revealed. Some fans defended her, saying that it was just CGI, but in the end it was obvious that these videos were AI. 

Many fans were furious, starting the hashtag #SwiftiesAgainstAI on X. But why were fans so upset? There are many environmental effects caused by AI, but there was more to it than that. 

Prior to the 2024 election, there was an AI generated video made of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump, which Trump then re-posted

onto Truth Social. This led to Swift mentioning in her real endorsement for Kamala Harris her fears and dangers that come with AI. 

Fans are now confused on why she would now go and potentially use AI to promote her album. She is a huge advocate for artists owning their work that they make, which is a direct opposite of Artificial Intelligence. 

But was Swift even involved?

Swift and her team have had a variety of different announcements during the release of her 12th album. The announcements ranged from releases of different variants of the album to a cinematic experience in movie theaters. These were all heavily promoted by both her and her team’s social media. 

These doors, however, were not mentioned by either her or her team. Some fans are speculating on if she even had any involvement in the matter. The only promotion for these orange doors was by YouTube’s X account. It is suspicious that these videos led to a phrase used by Swift’s team, “You must remember everything, but mostly this: the crowd is your king.” The videos are also now removed from YouTube Shorts. There is also an error message that comes up on X when you search “Taylor Swift AI.”

Besides this “secret message,” the only thing these alleged AI videos led to was a music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” that was already announced. Was all this AI even worth it and who was truly behind this? These are questions that still linger as there has not been any comments from Swift, her team or Google.

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