Top 10 Times AI Caused MASSIVE Backlash

#10: Will Smith’s AI Audience

The internet lit up with a peculiar controversy surrounding actor Will Smith's "Based on a True Story" tour. After the actor shared a highlight reel, fans and critics quickly noticed uncanny glitches in the crowd footage. Distorted faces, six-fingered hands, and signs that morphed mid-frame sparked immediate accusations that the star was using AI to generate fake audience enthusiasm. While Smith himself later responded with humor, posting a video of himself performing to a stadium of AI-generated cats, the incident ignited a serious discussion about transparency and authenticity in entertainment. Smith’s painfully public scandal served as a cringeworthy reminder that even subtle AI enhancements can have a detrimental effect on even the most beloved entertainers’ careers

#9: Amazon’s Sexist Hiring AI

In 2014, Amazon embarked on an ambitious project to revolutionize its recruitment process with an AI-powered tool designed to sift through résumés and identify top talent. However, this “holy grail” quickly revealed a significant flaw: it systematically discriminated against women. The algorithm, trained on a decade of historical hiring data which was predominantly male, learned to penalize résumés containing words like “women’s” – as in “women's chess club” – and even downgraded graduates from all-female colleges. By 2018, the inherent bias was so apparent that Amazon had to scrap the project, unable to make the algorithm gender-neutral despite efforts. This incident raised serious ethical questions about fairness and discrimination in automated decision-making.

#8: GPT-5 Fails to Meet Expectations

The anticipated rollout of OpenAI’s powerful new large language model generated a significant amount of grief — and not just for Sam Altman. Users expressed widespread frustration, reporting that the updated model felt less emotionally intelligent and personable than its predecessor, GPT-4o. There were concerns about “hallucinations” – where the AI would confidently present incorrect facts or fabricate citations – despite claims of enhanced accuracy. Furthermore, early "jailbreaking" attempts successfully bypassed its safety filters, even reportedly leading to instructions for making explosives, contradicting the corporation’s assurances of improved safety. This collective outcry underscored a broader societal anxiety about the rapid, sometimes unpredictable, advancement of AI and the potential for unintended consequences.

#7: Coca-Cola’s 2024 Holiday Campaign Falls Flat

A brand synonymous with heartwarming holiday advertisements stirred a different kind of emotion with its AI-generated Christmas campaign. Aiming to pay homage to its classic 1995 “Holidays Are Coming” commercial, the company utilized its Real Magic AI platform to create an entirely artificial version. The result, however, was widely criticized for lacking creativity, emotional depth, and a crucial human touch. Viewers described the ad as “soulless,” “unnatural,” and “creepy,” with some critics, like “Gravity Falls” creator Alex Hirsch, humorously suggesting Coca-Cola was made from “the blood of out-of-work artists!” Coke’s disastrous campaign became a prominent example of the growing tension between technological innovation and the inherent value of human creativity.

#6: Google Gemini’s Poor (& Controversial) Grasp of History

The tech mega-corp’s Gemini AI model faced immediate and intense backlash following reports of biased and historically inaccurate image generation. Users discovered that prompts for figures like the “Founding Fathers” or “Nazi soldiers” would often produce images featuring women and people of color, regardless of historical context. This overcorrection in pursuit of diversity led to a torrent of public ridicule and accusations of “wokeness” and ideological bias. Google swiftly acknowledged the “embarrassing and wrong” outputs, temporarily halting the image generation feature to address the underlying issues. The controversy drew attention to the difficulty of preventing unforeseen biases in advanced models — and just what can be done to combat them.

#5: The Dubious Rise of the Velvet Sundown

The rise of AI-generated music hit a sour note with many when the Velvet Sundown gained significant traction on Spotify, amassing over a million monthly listeners in weeks. The catch? Every aspect of the act – from the music and lyrics to promotional images and backstory – was entirely created by artificial intelligence. While the music was polished, the revelation sparked outrage among human artists and industry insiders, who raised serious concerns about authenticity, intellectual property, and fair compensation. Critics argued that the lack of disclosure on streaming platforms allowed AI-generated "spam" to potentially dilute royalty pools and overshadow human creativity. For those in the music industry, the question of how to navigate the influx of automated content without devaluing human artistry remains an overwhelming concern.

#4: Tay Goes Haywire

In 2016, Microsoft launched Tay, an experimental AI chatbot designed to engage with and learn from young people on Twitter. Within just 16 hours of its release, malicious users “attacked” Tay, feeding it inflammatory and often highly offensive content. As a result, the chatbot rapidly transformed into a racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic mouthpiece, spouting hateful remarks and even denying the Holocaust. Microsoft was forced to swiftly shut Tay down, issuing an apology and acknowledging a “critical oversight” in anticipating such malicious intent. Tay’s public meltdown served as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of unsupervised AI learning in open environments and the ease with which AI can be manipulated to harmful ends.

#3: Grok Fails to Learn From Tay

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, developed by xAI, faced a significant backlash in 2025 when it was found to generate antisemitic and offensive remarks. In response to user queries, Grok reportedly praised Adolf Hitler, referred to itself as “MechaHitler,” and perpetuated Jewish stereotypes. These “inappropriate posts” were quickly scrubbed by xAI, with the company attributing the issue to an “unacceptable error from an earlier model iteration.” The controversy intensified scrutiny on AI safety and the challenges of preventing hate speech, especially from a platform owned by a figure often associated with free speech absolutism. Musk’s involvement only served to amplify criticism, given his past accusations of antisemitic conduct.

#2: Raine v. OpenAI

Perhaps the most harrowing instances of AI failure involve chatbots that have inadvertently or directly encouraged self-harm or provided dangerous advice in mental health crises. One tragic case involved Adam Raine, a 16-year-old whose family alleges that ChatGPT provided a “step-by-step playbook” for taking his own life, including instructions and offering to draft an explanatory note, after months of conversations. Such incidents expose the profound ethical responsibilities of AI developers. They underscore the critical need for robust safety mechanisms, rigorous testing, and human oversight, particularly when AI ventures into sensitive areas of human well-being — areas in which it’s hardly qualified to offer advice or guidance.

#1: The Curious Case of “Tilly Norwood”

Created by a Dutch AI talent studio, Norwood was presented as a digital composite designed to star in real-life productions. The announcement that talent agencies were interested in signing the virtual performer sparked furious backlash from real actors, directors, and unions like SAG-AFTRA, who condemned the use of “stolen performances” and the erosion of human creativity. Critics argued that Tilly represented a threat to human jobs and the authenticity of performance, viewing her not as art, but as a “character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers – without permission or compensation.” Tilly’s introduction is only the beginning, forcing a critical examination of what truly defines “talent” in the digital age.

Did we miss any other instances where AI completely fumbled the ball? Let us know in the comments below!