User Reviews

Dear SKYND and Skyndicates, AI art and true crime should be kept as separate as possible.

I'll try not to repeat the words as many people who have criticised this music video and pointed out how it is so ironic that a "true crime band" like SKYND said yes to have AI be featured in their latest music video. But boy, where to start?

It is mind-boggling how SKYND, a band I adored for so many years, pretty much refused to do even the tiniest bit of research of the controversy surrounding AI art and why so many artists hate it so much. And NO, just because other bands like Disturbed, Linkin Park or Die Antwoord also made videos using AI doesn't make the whole thing becomes less unethical. Several of the most high-profile AI art generators out there work by taking the prompts they're fed and gathering related images, before putting out a result based on those images. Many artists are upset by these systems bordering on plagiarism, as they're being used to essentially copy an artist's style with no credit or source give (watch "Why Artists are Fed Up with AI Art" by SamDoesArts and "Artificial Intelligence" by John Oliver).

TL;DR Music video is bad because it's using actual work from actual artists without payment or credit to create those AI images and the tragic story involving a 17-year-old victim of a horrorfying crime is thrown into this mix. The AI images that are supposed to look like Bianca Devins in the video barely looks anything like her, that's how bad it is.

I sincerely hope Bianca Devin's family and friends will never see this video.

1/10 stars from me.

I've been a fan of this band for a very long time & I usually loved SKYND & their approach to their music videos. But this one just made me legitimately angry.

As an anime fan I was disgusted with the use of the awkward & cringy AI-anime filter. I can understand that they wanted to try something different but why even bother using AI if hiring actual animators was so expensive? AI-art is VERY controversial & despised within the art community because of so much copyright infringement involved & it takes a few clicks away to find out why.

To those who don't mind the AI filter; did you know that the mental health of many animators within the anime industry is actually suffering as a result of various things such as poverty & Skynd HERSELF has stated multiple times that "mental health is something we need to talk about"? Do you even know if SKYND got permission from some studio to use AI tools to train on their anime & not even give credit? If not, there's a strong case for copyright infringement. I'm even pro-small scale AI for uses like improving medical science but this is way too far out of that.

This is a band using some unknown company's work for profit & are too lazy to even give credit, plus it's based on the true story of a female teenager whose deceased body became viral & ridiculed LESS than 5 years ago.

Even if you took away the AI-generated imagery, it still doesn't even look that good...

The idea of creating a music video using AI and combine it with true crime is not only stupid, but it's also disgustingly insulting considering the fact that the band clearly did not ask poor Kimberly Devins for permission before creating this music video.

The singer has even said a couple of times that she "is trying to be respectful towards the victims" and yet she has not even mention a word about how Kimberly is campaigning to hold social media platforms accountable with "Bianca's Law" and even tried to encourage her followers to go and support the Devins family.

Also, AI art doesn't allow Copyright so legally anyone can take multiple screenshots from this video and say they own the images. Though I doubt anyone except some AI-bros would claim ownership of this trash...

The singer Skynd's vocals may shine in this music video for her track "Bianca Devins", delivering a pretty haunting performance, but the video stumbles with some lackluster AI effects that unintentionally dehumanizes its subject. The contrast with the more humanized portrayal of Shanann Watts in the "Chris Watts" music video, that was created by the same director P. R. Brown, is particularly notable. Even Skynd's choice of some corny anime-inspired makeup detracts from the seriousness of the content, making her appearance come off as silly than impactful. Moreover, the Swiss actress Sarah Baumgartner, who did a good job portraying a school shooting survivor in a previous SKYND video titled "Columbine", seems underutilized in this one, marking a missed opportunity to showcase her talents more effectively. I even showed a close friend of mine who is a manga geek this video and asked her if she if the effects really looked that bad. She told me that she bursted out laughing while watching this video.

So one might say that, despite good intentions, the band's attempt at translating the case of Bianca Devins into a song, as well as into a music video, ended up getting lost in translation.

As a devoted follower of SKYND's excellent storytelling through music videos I was deeply disappointed with this one. Unlike their previous stuff, which gripped viewers with their raw emotion and disturbing visuals, 'Bianca Devins' felt like a hollow shell of what SKYND is capable of. The video lacked the depth and nuance that made their earlier works so captivating, instead it comes across as a very lazy product, almost as if it were churned out by some AI's attempt to make some kind of bad parody of SKYND's 'Michelle Carter' video. Even the attempt at incorporating some low-quality AI-generated anime into the video only served to detract from its impact, appearing VERY out of place. So yeah, this one failed to deliver the spine-chilling experience I've come to expect from this band and it left me with a sense of disappointment rather than the fear and intrigue I had hoped for.

Well, well, well, if it isn't SKYND's "Bianca Devins" music video, a prime example of how not to pay tribute to a murder victim. I mean, seriously, who gave the green light to this dumpster fire? With the finesse of a blindfolded chimp, they decided to slap on some pathetic AI filter, turning poor Bianca into a cartoonish monstrosity straight out of a B-grade horror flick. And let's not forget those teeth - Bianca ends up looking like she's auditioning for the role of the next Jaws villain rather than a 17-year-old girl.

So congrats, SKYND, you've managed to turn a heartbreaking story into a sideshow of unintentional comedy. Move over, stand-up comedians, because bad AI animation are the new kings of comedy. Forget about scares or tears; this music video is more likely to induce fits of laughter. Heck, even the trolls from 4chan would've had a field day with this one when the Bianca Devins case was still very fresh. So keep up the good work, SKYND - hope to see you turn a tragic story into a sideshow of cringe-inducing proportions again in the future! XD.