For the release of her twelfth album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Taylor Swift sent fans on an online scavenger hunt this weekend, which began by searching for “Taylor Swift” on Google. But as fans unveiled secret videos as part of the campaign, some fretted that the clips looked like they were AI-generated and were not pleased.
A Google search for the singer’s name yields a cryptic message: “12 cities, 12 doors, 1 video to unlock.”
Fans had to figure out the location of the doors, then physically find them and scan a QR code, which surfaced twelve unique videos that contained the clues needed to solve the puzzle. When fans Googled the correct phrase, another orange door appeared, which fans had to collectively “knock” on by clicking 12 million times. Finally, the door “opened,” revealing a lyric video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” which has its own orange door progress bar on YouTube.
YouTube had scored the video exclusive for the track, as well as the lyric videos from the remaining songs on the new album.
Google initially announced the scavenger hunt in a video on Instagram. The video begins with an aerial view of Earth, then quickly zooms in on a hilly, bejeweled landscape, until we see an orange door, overlayed with a Google search bar.
While Swifties love a puzzle, some were rubbed the wrong way by the 12 clue-containing videos, which looked to be AI-generated.
Instead of searching for clues to unveil Swift’s new lyric video, as Swift intended, some fans began to scour the video clips like detectives, looking for signs that the scenes were synthetic. However, while there are clips that look computer-generated, it’s unclear if they were made using AI, and if so, to what extent.
Techcrunch event Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444. Join 10k+ tech and VC leaders for growth and connections at Disrupt 2025 Netflix, Box, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, Vinod Khosla — just some of the 250+ heavy hitters leading 200+ sessions designed to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don’t miss a chance to learn from the top voices in tech. Grab your ticket before doors open to save up to $444. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW
It would make sense if these videos were generated using Google’s AI products. As OpenAI shows off its new Sora 2 video generator, this Taylor Swift collaboration would be a serendipitous opportunity for Google to show millions of Swifties what its Veo 3 model can do.
Google did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on how these videos were generated or if Swift and Google worked together on this activation by using Google’s own AI technology. But Swift’s team and Google have teamed up for similar promotional activities in the past, we should note.
... continue reading