Sabrina Carpenter in the doghouse for AI Man’s Best Friend stickers

Pop princess Sabrina Carpenter recently found herself in the doghouse after she was caught using AI artwork to promote her new album, Man's Best Friend. Featuring in a set of custom TikTok stickers, the designs were dissected by eagle-eyed fans who picked apart each sloppy AI-ified detail, sharing their disappointment at the marketing move.

The controversy comes just weeks after Carpenter was criticised for her controversial album artwork, which some fans claimed set a bad example for the singer's young fans. While the best album covers can be provocative, it seems Carpenter's design has only snowballed into more contention, proving that even superfans will speak up against lazy AI art.

Celebrating the release of Man's Best Friend, TikTok teamed up with Carpenter to offer users free in-app stickers. Featuring her signature 50s aesthetic, the various designs star a cartoon Carpenter hanging out with pooch pals and getting up to various hijinks. While innocuous at first glance, fans began to notice strange details such as missing appendages, wonky features and blotchy text.

"This made me sad," a fan on Reddit wrote. "She definitely can hire an artist. Her aesthetic is so fun too and these are just milquetoast drawings. No soul to them," they added. "Artists not supporting other artists is intrinsically so wrong," another fan wrote, while one commented, "God I hate hate HATE the faux-lineart style that AI uses for this 'art' – it’s excruciatingly boring, indistinct, void of any interesting 'choices'."

While it's disappointing to see another musical artist embracing AI, sadly, it's nothing new in the industry. With examples like Rod Stewart's bizarre AI tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne sparking debate online, it seems the technology is becoming more prevalent despite backlash. Reports claim AI is already killing music, but it's important that fans continue to stand up and hold artists accountable.