Electric Light Orchestra has been criticised by fans for using “lazy” artificial intelligence during the Over and Out tour.
The Jeff Lynne-led band are embarking on their final concert dates, with farewell dates in the UK confirmed to be the band’s final shows. Formed in 1970, the band will conclude fifty-five years of history at Hyde Park in July next year. But those who caught the band on their US tour earlier this year have slammed the band’s decision to use artificial intelligence for visual displays at their show.
A post to the r/ELO subreddit revealed that while the concert was great, the inclusion of A.I. technology had left a sour taste. User miimeverse wrote: “The concert was great. All who have yet to see it, enjoy! That said, there was a big sour spot for me: AI art was used on the screen for most of the songs. It felt lazy. With just an ounce more effort, there are stock photos of train stations, forests, cities, etc. that would have been far better visuals than mushy, sterile, lifeless AI art. Alas.”
Members of the public agreed with the “lazy” assessment and were puzzled by why the band would use artificial intelligence when their earlier works had visual additions. One user wrote: “I was surprised they used it for songs from Discovery— since that entire album has a traditionally animated music video for each song. I was glad they didn’t use AI for all of it, some of the computer animation they had looked great, and I was stoked they used some old Scanimate stuff for several songs.”
A third added: “This really bummed me out too. Great show, but it kept taking me out of and I was really trying not to look at it. Really hard to look past that. Had fun otherwise, it’s just tainting the evening for me.”
It is unknown whether ELO will use artificial intelligence at their UK gigs, which sees the band return to their hometown of Birmingham, as well as Manchester and London.
Other users have suggested reusing old assets from previous tours for the final shows. One wrote: “Why couldn’t they reuse the animations/videos from previous tours? I assume there was a weird resolution issue with the new Spaceship jumbotron prop?”
Another added: “I’m glad someone brought this up because I felt like I was going crazy with no one else I know having mentioned it. I remember when the AI stuff first started showing on the screen and I became…. visibly less excited. So bizarre and not what I expected to see at the concert to say the least.”
There were some who did like the artificially generated visuals, though, with one attendee writing: “I thought it was really cool, personally. While it can be argued that there are a lot of things that AI art does that takes compensated work from artists, that weird sort of morphing effect the visuals had was really one of the only good uses of AI I’ve seen in a commercial project, if that’s the look that the team specifically wanted to go for.
“Imagine being an artist who had to draw thousands of slightly different images! No way the pay would have been commensurate for that level of work! I imagine the artist who made it put in a lot of work aside from the AI. At the end of the day, it’s another tool, and a lot of commercial artists have already begun incorporating it into their workflow.”
A video of the artificial intelligence has since been posted to Instagram, with film director Eddy Ray slamming the band’s use of generated imagery.
He wrote: “Many friends have asked why I didn’t share more from Jeff Lynne’s ELO Forum show last week. The truth is I was incredibly disheartened to see this timeless band using Generative A.I. the entire set. And not the more sophisticated A.I., but the very rushed and haphazard primitive style from just a couple years ago. It was very clear somebody plugged the song lyrics into the engine and just pressed enter.
“Song after song I found myself trying to block the screen behind Jeff Lynne’s head because of the abomination of images on display. And to the people who made this decision over at ELO, would you replace a band member with an A.I. performer? Because by condoning this art, you took jobs away from real animators and artists who could’ve delivered you something of true quality and merit worthy of this farewell tour. Over and out, indeed.”
I loved it! A truly transcendent experience. I’ve been to a thousand shows from clubs to arenas and this was THE BEST!
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the way they chose to use AI in the Jeff Lynne s ELO concert over and out tour! I was extremely pleased that they did not waste money hiring artist and graphics engineers to do what they could do with AI thereby keeping the concert cost low so more fans could attend! I was very grateful to be able to see this show. As so many band s charge hundreds of dollars for one concert making it out of reach for most Americans! Haven’t they made enough money? Shouldn’t there last and final tour include decent ticket prices?! Or is the final tour about gouging the American public one last time?!
I saw nothing wrong with what they did. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed the concert so much, I saw them more than once. The visuals were great, but I was there to enjoy the music and I did. No complaints here.
This is ridiculous! We saw the show in Cincinnati this summer. It was awesome. There was nothing wrong with the background. We liked it and did not find it distracting in the least. Just goes to show that someone is always out there ready to complain or is not satisfied. Don’t listen to the negative reviews, go see for yourself. The music and the show was nonstop hits and fantastic…..
Andrew
Kentucky
Some people just want to pretend to be above the others. I saw the show and liked the light show and the back screen effects. If they were that bummed out they should have left the show.