Toronto Blue Jays deny AI use in social media video but fans aren't buying it

The Toronto Blue Jays are being scrutinized by fans over an allegedly AI-generated sponsored video posted to the team's social media page this week.

On Wednesday, the Blue Jays posted what appeared to be a collaboration with Nestea called "Spill the Tea," featuring animated versions of several players telling stories about how they spend their days off.

An animated Ernie Clement describes some members of the team going on a fishing trip in Florida last season, and Mason Fluharty talks about another day off when he and Trey Yesavage visited a sports card shop in Toronto.

The video contains all pretty benign stuff that you'd think would typically be quirky and fun for fans.

Moments after the video was shared, fans began accusing the team of using what's commonly described as "AI slop" to create the sponsored content.

Spill the Tea ☕️

Watch the full video: https://t.co/8TNXRN9bwV pic.twitter.com/Lk6ufFJwsV

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 2, 2026

"Why is my team posting AI, WTF?" one fan wrote.

The Blue Jays responded, denying the accusation and saying the video was "not AI," but rather a "human-animated video."

"Corny. Rogers can't afford real animation?" another fan wrote.

"Corny comment. This was made by a real animator," the Blue Jays replied, doubling down.

Fans might have been more receptive to the video if the team had originally acknowledged that it was created by a human animator using AI assistance. 

As the video racked up nearly two million views, the post was hit with a community note on X claiming that, despite the team's insistence, the video was "entirely" AI-generated.

"At basically any timestamp in this video, you can pause and see AI artifacts in both the mouth and eyes on the characters, or garbled text in the background," the community note read.

blogTO also reached out to the Blue Jays for comment on the allegations.

A screenshot from the "Spill the Tea" video shows swirling, gibberish text and the background photo of the 1993 Rookie of the Year, with a third arm. (@BlueJays/YouTube)

To get a better understanding of the matter, blogTO reached out to an expert for a professional opinion on whether the sponsored video was AI-generated. We spoke with an expert from a Toronto-based AI consulting firm, who said the video appears not to have been done by an animator despite what the team claimed.

"The players' faces warp between frames, and there is gibberish background text all throughout the video," the expert said.