Zara Larsson fans rioted after the singer supported AI-generated content. Now her controversial take is going viral

Pop star Zara Larsson is the internet’s newest it girl. After a wave of viral hits, including her latest album’s title track “Midnight Sun” and her feature on PinkPantheress’ “Stateside” remix, the Swedish singer cemented herself as the next big thing in pop music.

But fame doesn’t come without controversy, as Larsson learned when she revealed to her fanbase that she uses generative AI.

The discourse began when Larsson posted about watching AI-generated content on TikTok. Larsson first reposted an image from the account Ai Fruit Stories, a page posting AI animations of—you guessed it—drama between anthropomorphic foods. 

Larsson then posted a selfie with the caption, “Sorry I can’t hang out today, I gotta see what’s happening with choclatina and strawberto,” referring to that page’s main storyline: a chocolate bar named Chocolatina seducing a strawberry named Strawberto.

The situation may sound silly on paper, but it riled up Larsson’s fandom, who called her out for apparently supporting generative AI despite its harmful environmental impact, as well as the damage so-called “AI slop” can do to creative industries.

Larsson returned to TikTok to address the controversy in a since-deleted video. “I am just a girl with a phone at the end of the day,” she said. “And I just actually just want to be funny sometimes, and want to connect with people.” 

She added that she’s not an actual fan of the account she reposted, but that it randomly popped up on her For You Page and she shared it thinking her followers would find it funny. “Do I genuinely consume AI fruits cheating on each other and getting pregnant left and right? I don’t think I do,” she said.

Larsson went on to describe her own relationship with generative AI: “I don’t use it for my art. I don’t use it to create. I can see how it can be a tool for people to do that; I don’t do it personally,” she said.

“But I do use ChatGPT, I’m sorry,” she continued. “And I Google shit. I Google shit sometimes because I’m curious. I don’t really love the Google AI answers, but I use it.”

Larsson said she feels like AI is “everywhere, and it’s taken over.” With generative AI now baked into the fabric of so many aspects of daily life, she says, she’s hopeful that it will eventually stop having a negative environmental impact: “I know it’s just gonna be more environmentally friendly. It just has to be,” she said. “It just has to use less water, less energy, because that’s just the way forward.”

“At this point, I don’t ever see us going back to not using it,” Larsson concluded.

Larsson’s response only added fuel to her critics’ fire. Many refuted her claim that generative AI use is impossible to avoid, saying they simply choose not to use tools like ChatGPT.

“Reminder that you actually don’t have to use gen ai for anything at all despite it being shoved in your face!” one user posted.

Others pointed out that her optimism around AI’s environmental impact seems unfounded, as the continued construction of new data centers only ramps up concerns for the future of the planet.

Some fans were especially disappointed that Larsson, as an artist herself, would consume and share AI-generated art. “Please support the human writers, artists, animators, singers,” one user wrote. “Art is humanity’s greatest creation. We have to protect it. We have to reject generative AI completely.”

Not everyone was against Larsson’s perspective. Some reasoned that the situation has been blown out of proportion, with one poster saying they “cannot bring [themself] to care” about her “watching ai videos she did not make.”

But others argued that the size of Larsson’s fanbase—including her 8.8 million followers on TikTok—means she ought to be held accountable for what she posts.

Larsson may have deleted all her posts on the topic, but her comments section on TikTok is still dominated by discussions on generative AI. On her most recent video, the top comment riffs on Larsson’s beach-going, summery aesthetic: “It’s gonna be summer forever if you keep using ai.”

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