Singer Rod Stewart sparked backlash after his concert featured an AI-generated tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, which struck many as distasteful.
Osbourne passed away last month at the age of 76—his death inspired an outpouring of love and affection from his fans and peers, but Stewart’s AI-generated tribute invoked unease.
What Is Rod Stewart’s AI-Generated Ozzy Controversy?
Rod Stewart has been paying tribute to Osbourne ever since he passed away, with Stewart regularly dedicating his song “Forever Young” to the Black Sabbath star during his “One Last Time” tour.
Stewart’s concert on August 1 featured a new addition to the “Forever Young” tribute—a bizarre, AI-generated video of Osbourne taking selfies with deceased celebrities, standing before a cloudy background meant to represent Heaven.
Celebrities featured in the AI-generated video include Prince, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, XXXTentacion, Tupac Shakur, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.
The fact that many of these late stars suffered tragic, untimely deaths adds to the ghoulishness of the display—all are shown grinning inanely at the camera, animated by the digital necromancy of generative AI.
The AI-Generated Tribute Sparks Online Backlash
Concertgoers quickly shared their reaction on social media, along with online commentators who did not attend the show.
Relatives of XXXTentacion and Tupac Shakur told TMZ that they had no problems with the AI-generated tribute, but many fans felt otherwise.
One commentator described the tribute as a “sign of stupidity”—many reckoned it was “creepy and tasteless.”
Another expressed shock at the contents of the video, and concluded, “We truly are in the end times.”
The condemnation echoed the words of the legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, whose negative reaction to a generative AI presentation became something of a rallying cry for anti-AI artists.
Musing on what he had just witnessed, a dispirited Miyazaki said, “I feel like we are nearing the end times. We humans are losing faith in ourselves.”
The Backlash Against Generative AI Continues
Generative AI has been controversial since release—it’s an energy-intensive invention built on the output of artists without their consent, threatening the livelihood of workers and polluting the internet with machine-made content.
Recent concerns about AI involve the altering of real video and imagery, such as the reshaping of The Wizard of Oz to fit the Las Vegas Sphere.
Lately, AI enthusiasts have been using the technology for a more unsettling purpose, posting pictures of their deceased relatives that they have “animated” using AI, old photographs imbued with the appearance of life.
Many commentators react to these re-animated clips with visceral disgust and horror, often citing works of fiction that warn against meddling with memories, or attempting to reanimate the dead.
The AI-generated Ozzy Osbourne tribute feels like a step toward the normalization of such practices, trivializing the memory of the deceased with images and videos that do not feature their true self, but a machine-made echo of their likeness.
It wasn’t long ago that generative AI crossed a technological boundary, capable of creating convincing video of anyone, doing anything—now, it’s forcing the dead to smile for the camera.