Pink Floyd AI Video Controversy

Submission 5,787

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Overview

Pink Floyd AI Video Controversy refers to a controversy surrounding an AI-generated video for Pink Floyd's song "Any Color You Like" becoming one of 10 winners in The Dark Side of the Moon's 50th Anniversary Competition in early April 2024. Created by Australian 3D artist Damián Gaume using Stable Diffusion and Blender, the video became a subject of controversy after the victory drew attention on X / Twitter.

Background

In 2023, English rock band Pink Floyd launched a $100,000 animation competition for its 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.^[1] The artists were able to submit animated videos for up to 10 songs from the album, with submissions closing on December 31st, 2023. The judges panel included noted animation and film experts, including English cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and film director Terry Gilliam.

Pink Floyd started unveiling the winning submissions on April 2nd, 2024, each day uploading one winning video to their YouTube channel and social media.^[2] Each winner was awarded $10,000.

On April 5th, 2024, Pink Floyd announced the winning submission for its song "Any Color You Like," uploading the video to YouTube. An artificial intelligence video created by Australian 3D artist Damián Gaume using generative AI Stable Diffusion and 3D modeling software Blender. The video gained over 72,000 views on YouTube^[3] and 17.6 million views, 6,900 reposts and quotes, and 5,300 likes on X^[4] / Twitter in three days (shown below).

Online Reactions

Immediately following the announcement, the decision to award the victory to an AI-generated video became a subject of controversy on social media, primarily on X / Twitter. On April 5th, 2024, X^[5] user @Floydposting quoted the announcement, commenting, "are you fucking serious". The post received over 490 reposts and 22,000 likes in three days (shown below, left).

Later that day, X^[6] user @FrunsOnYoutube posted a GIF caption meme about David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, with the post (shown below, right) garnering over 260 reposts and 3,500 likes in three days.

On April 6th, 2024, X^[7] user @vivipooh_ posted a contest submission for another song from the album by artist The Insaneum, falsely claiming that the video lost to Gaume's AI video. The post (shown below, left) received over 22,000 reposts and 109,000 likes in two days. On April 7th, The Insaneum made a post^[8] congratulating the actual winner in his category, a claymation video by Monic Fibbi, adding^[9] that he is sad that the AI entry won in a different category (shown below, right).

The controversy remained viral on X / Twitter through early April 2024, with multiple users expressing their disappointment with the judging and ratioing Pink Floyd's post with non-AI animated videos.