Toronto Tempo fire back at claim they used AI to create team content

The Toronto Tempo fired back at a fan who claimed that the team used AI to create social media content. 

With Canada's first WNBA franchise set to embark on its inaugural season next month, the team is working overtime to grow its brand in the country. It will be a monumental moment for women's sports in Canada, and the Tempo are already making it clear to new fans that they always put in the work and never take the lazy way out.

One X user accused the team of using AI to generate art for the team's International Women's Day post, calling it "AI trash. But the Tempo's official account wasn't having it, and fired back at the fan. 

"Put some respect on our designer's name, absolutely not," The Tempo replied. 

put some respect on our designer’s name, absolutely not

— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) March 8, 2026

The post in question featured a drawing of a young girl and her mother watching a Tempo game on a bed in a room filled with merchandise from other Toronto-based women's sports teams, such as the PWHL's Toronto Sceptres. 

It was a post meant to highlight the importance of female representation in the sporting world, but it also ended up highlighting an artist. 

See her, be her.

Happy International Women's Day 🩵 pic.twitter.com/foUWApiJHp

— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) March 8, 2026

One X user was quick to point out that the Tempo didn't even share the name of the team designer who came up with the image, despite the response to "put respect on their name." The WNBA team quickly remedied that by revealing the designer to be Toronto-based illustrator Maddy Rotman. 

This confirmed that the post was, indeed, not AI-generated. 

maddy rotman 💅

— Toronto Tempo (@TempoBasketball) March 8, 2026

AI-generated content has become much more prevalent in recent years, and it's drawn a lot of criticism from people who'd rather see work done by actual human artists. 

It seems, for the time being at least, the Tempo are back in good standing with fans and still supporting internal human designers over AI creations.