Dance headliner Illenium has taken to X to respond to fans roasting him online for using artificial intelligence to design a flier for his upcoming four-night run at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.
On Monday, Illenium announced four dates at the San Francisco venue, July 19-20 and 26-27. A number of fans suspected the artwork for the show poster was created using AI and took to Twitter to roast the dance star. The image features a man, who is supposed to be Illenium, wearing a backward San Francisco Giants hat while standing in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge staring at the city skyline.
Fans were quick to call out the poster, calling it ugly and complaining that Illenium should pay an actual artist for artwork rather than using AI.
Earlier Tuesday (June 4), Illenium copped to the AI allegations, writing on X, “Hey guys, I hear all ur feedback on the sf art. My mgmt worked with (and paid) a designer on a few options. Our team had also created an ai version to help conceptualize. My mgmt ended up using the ai art because they’re stupid and have no taste. However, we still worked with designers to create the final result. We realize now that a few elements were sloppy and missed by us. New artwork incoming.”
Illenium is managed by Ha Hau from Global Dance in Denver. Billboard reached out to Ha for comment but did not receive a response.
A number of fans roasted Illenium for his response, with user @chieflaser writing, “Blaming it on your management like you don’t have the final say? Tough look, while @LikRRaider mocked the fan outcry, writing, “Why are you caving to people on the internet? It’s really not that big of a deal. Pay people for the time they came up with designs, but if you find you like something more then stick to it. People, if you want your art used then you should probably get better at it.”
Fellow dance star John Summit weighed in too, writing in the replies: “the mgmt dunk lmfaoooo if we had it their way flyers would just be date & location w ticket link via notes app.”
Artist presale for all four shows opens Wednesday (June 5) here.