Olivia Rodrigo just showed creatives how to deal with false design allegations in style

In 2026, most of us have experienced something like this. You've spent weeks painstakingly crafting something by hand. Heart beating, you've put it out into the world via the web. And within 24 hours some idiot commenter has decided it’s "obviously AI".

It's frustrating, because although you should never pay attention to the comments on the internet (like, ever), the idea someone thinks you "cheated" is actually more upsetting than if they simply didn't like it.

The only silver lining is that at least you can reassure yourself it happens to everyone. Even, it seems, to some of the world's biggest pop stars.

Last Friday, Olivia Rodrigo released the video for her remix of ‘Expectations’ featuring Chappell Roan, in which the two singers send up retro TV game shows, with Talking Heads frontman David Byrne playing the host. Around the three-minute mark, there's a very brief animated sequence featuring cartoon versions of the two young women.

The internet got to work examining the footage, as the internet tends to do, and concluded that generative AI must have been involved. There was plenty of "evidence" in the eyes of these keyboard Miss Marples.

In the normal run of things, you'd have then expected a series of formal denials from the musicians and their representatives. All of which would have merely fuelled the rage and conspiracy theories, and the whole thing might have rumbled on for months.

Show your workings

Instead, something different happened: the work was simply shown. Rodrigo’s official fan account, LiviesHQ, shared a behind-the-scenes clip with the caption: “BTS of the hand-drawn characters, 2D & 3D animation, and analog TV screens used to create the retro graphics of the ‘Expectations’ music video.”

This is not a lengthy, step-by-step documentary, more of a quick sizzle reel. But nonetheless, you can clearly see rough character sketches, 3D animation in progress and how an analogue approach provided the lo-fi feel.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, graphic designer Jack Harrison led the analogue treatment. The art team created the animations in 2D and 3D software, loaded the files onto a Windows Vista PC (ask your dad), then filmed the screen with a high-res camera. In other words, they put a lot of work into making the sequence look clunky and old-fashioned.

This fits neatly with what Olivia told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “I would never use AI in any of my music,” she said. “Absolutely no. Hard line on that. The closest I’d ever got is that once, me and [producer] Dan [Nigro] were like, ‘God, I wonder what ideas ChatGPT would have for an Olivia Rodrigo title,’ and they’re all f**king awful.”

What the backlash to the 'Expectations' video proved, though, is that it doesn't matter how many times you deny using AI, some people won't believe you.

Keep the receipts

So here's my key takeaway. Whether you're a team working for a global superstar or a freelance designer in your bedroom, the most important thing is to record your process.

Keep all your sketches and working files for a project, even the stuff that didn't work and that you later discarded. Make screen recordings of work you do on your computer, and take photos of anything physical you make. Then if anyone kicks off online, just provide the evidence.

Olivia didn’t get drawn into a slanging match. She just shared a short clip that let the work speak for itself, and moved on. It’s a sad state of affairs when creatives have to prove they’re human. But if we have to do it, at least we can do it in style.

Tom May is an award-winning journalist specialising in art, design, photography and technology. He is the author of the books The 50 Greatest Designers (Arcturus) and Great TED Talks: Creativity (Pavilion). Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.