Lady Gaga’s New Video Sparks Unfounded AI Accusations and Internet Paranoia

The Lady Gaga Backlash Proves AI Paranoia Has Gone Too Far

Spotting AI-generated content is getting harder by the day. This has led to nearly everything being accused of artificial creation—even when that’s not the case. A recent example is the response to Lady Gaga’s new music video for The Dead Dance.

The video, directed by Tim Burton and released alongside Netflix’s Wednesday Season 2, delivers a nightmarish black-and-white world filled with monsters and dolls. Some viewers quickly claimed parts of it were AI-generated, pointing to strange CGI effects like fingers that appear to clip or melt into each other.

Despite Tim Burton’s own criticism of AI as "like a robot taking your soul," skepticism remains about the video’s craftsmanship. One of the animators addressed these claims directly, confirming that the moving dolls were hand-animated in a VFX studio, not created with AI.

Production company The Roots also shared the full credits on Instagram, listing a large team of artists and designers behind the project. This further confirms the human effort involved in bringing the video to life.

The bigger issue here is the knee-jerk labeling of anything unusual or imperfect as AI-generated. Visual effects that are intentionally unsettling or unpolished are instantly viewed with suspicion. This paranoia risks undermining genuine creative work that doesn’t fit the polished, flawless mold.

Artists shouldn’t have to defend their craft just because their work looks a bit weird. In The Dead Dance, that weirdness is exactly the point.