Green Day have no problem in addressing controversy, and Will Smith recently came under fire when people began to accuse the actor and rapper of allegedly using A.I. to create the crowds in a recently shared tour video.
🎸 En su tercera visita al Perú, #GreenDay desató euforia el 27 de agosto en el Estadio de San Marcos de Lima.
🎤 Luego compartieron imágenes del público con la frase: “Don’t need A.I. for our crowds”, en alusión a Will Smith y la polémica por usar IA en un video de su gira 2025 pic.twitter.com/rosQ6c5Y3b
— Tercer Parlante (@tercerparlante) August 29, 2025
Will Smith Used AI
In the caption of his video, Smith noted how grateful he is for his fans, writing: “My favorite part of tour is seeing you all up close. Thank you for seeing me, too.”
Now, Green Day is poking fun at Smith.
Addressing the controversy, the Billie Joe Armstrong fronted band shared their own concert footage, featuring a tightly packed crowd singing along to “Basket Case.”
People are claiming that Will Smith’s latest concert footage has an AI generated crowd.
Y’all come look at this shit. pic.twitter.com/MrNyxJCVvk
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) August 26, 2025
Green Day Don’t Need AI
In the caption of their video, Green Day wrote: “Don’t need A.I. for our crowds.”
It should be noted that while the audience in Smith’s video does look a bit off, it seems that the A.I. look of Smith’s crowd is a result of “upscaling” – though it has not officially been confirmed.
This isn’t the first time Green Day have weighed in on culture wars. During the height of the Iraq War, the band released 2004’s “American Idiot,” which openly criticized U.S. politics and became one of their defining works. More recently, Billie Joe Armstrong made headlines in 2022 when he told a London crowd that he was “renouncing” his American citizenship following the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion rights. The band has consistently used both humor and protest to spark conversations outside of just music.
The controversy around Smith’s video also reflects a broader trend. Artificial intelligence has allegedly been used by artists as varied as Drake, Grimes, and Linkin Park in recent years—sometimes with fan support, other times with backlash. Earlier in 2023, Spotify even pulled thousands of AI-generated tracks after complaints from major labels. Green Day’s playful jab arrives in the middle of that ongoing debate, positioning them on the side of traditional live performance and authenticity at a time when many question how far technology should go in reshaping music culture.
