Fans called Olivia Rodrigo's 'expectations' video AI, so her team posted the hand-drawn drafts

Olivia Rodrigo’s “expectations” video with Chappell Roan had been on YouTube for less than a day when viewers started counting fingers.

The video went up on October 15, 2026, and passed 14.7 million views by October 20. A short animated stretch, with cartoon versions of both singers, got called out as AI.

The answer was process footage: hand-drawn characters, 2D and 3D animation and analog TV screens. It came from designer Jack Harrison, who worked on the animation, and from Livies HQ, Rodrigo’s official fan account. Rodrigo hasn’t said anything about it herself, and a rep didn’t respond to Rolling Stone.

What fans flagged as AI in Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘expectations’ video

The video is a parody of old TV game shows, directed by Bardia Zeinali. David Byrne plays the host, and the sets spoof The Price Is Right, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

The part people paused on starts around the 3:02 mark. A “Wheel of Misfortune” logo flies in, then cartoon Olivia and Chappell ride a spinning game-show wheel and pop up next to the real singers.

Viewers pointed at the hands, where the fingers didn’t stay consistent. Fans quoted by Far Out also flagged Roan’s limbs going missing between shots and a colour palette that kept shifting.

One viewer posted on X on October 16: “different amounts of fingers, distorted and disfigured hands and fingers, arms going missing, chappells makeup changing… yeah this ai music video a mess.”

Extra fingers are the classic giveaway in AI images, so the guess wasn’t random. A day later, the people who made the segment showed how they did it.

How the ‘expectations’ cartoons were made: hand drawings, 3D and a Windows Vista PC

Livies HQ posted a behind-the-scenes reel on Instagram a little over a day after the release. Rolling Stone describes it as drafts of the drawings, recordings of the 3D animation and more.

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bts of the hand-drawn characters, 2D & 3D animation, and analog TV screens used to create the retro graphics of the expectations music video

Jack Harrison shared his own clip with a thank-you to designers @andreyazizov and @gustavo.eandi, “who handed me some incredible stuff to animate,” and to director Bardia Zeinali “for keeping us all in check.”

Harrison led the analog treatment, which Rolling Stone credits for the video’s retro, low-fi look. The team animated the designs in 2D and 3D software, played the files on a Windows Vista PC, then filmed that screen with a hi-res camera.

Neither caption mentions AI. The posts just show the work, step by step.

Why the ‘expectations’ rumour stood out after Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘hard line’ on AI

The timing is what made it a story. On October 7, Rodrigo told The Hollywood Reporter she would never use AI in her music and called it a hard line, which I covered in my piece on that interview. Stereogum wrote that an AI video from her “would be really surprising” after that.

Other music teams faced the same question this year, and each answered it differently:

• Prince’s estate named the 3 horn players who finished “Calabama” after fans accused the album of using AI.
• D’Addario posted a proof video for its string demo, and YouTubers found it didn’t match.
• Grimes’ team confirmed on October 13 that the “Accelerando” video does use AI-generated elements.
• K.K. Downing went the other way the same week, with an AI version of his younger self in KK’s Priest’s “Never Satisfied” video.

Rolling Stone’s headline credits the “artists behind” the video, not the singer. So far, the answer to the “expectations” question is 2 Instagram posts and a camera pointed at a Windows Vista screen, and Rodrigo herself hasn’t added a word.