Bell generated quite a bit of controversy at Fan Expo Canada over the weekend.
The carrier had a major presence at the country’s largest pop-culture convention through its regular big esports booth. But what ended up garnering more attention, in some ways, was a nearby “Free Photo Booth” featuring none other than AI imagery. At this booth, you could get your picture taken and then it would be “enhanced” for free using AI tools, turning you into characters like superheroes or anime school kids with a corresponding background.
Bell is set up at FanEx Toronto with a Booth that generates AI photos of people.
Feel free to call up bell to cancel your services if you wanna prove a point about how much that shit sucks
— Rosemary Travale (@travale.bsky.social) August 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Bell quickly came under fire for this booth. For one thing, there’s the sourcing of it all. Comics and video games writer Stephanie Cooke, who was covering the booth extensively on Bluesky throughout the Fan Expo weekend, said a Bell rep told her that an artist had been paid for the images and backgrounds. However, she adds that the AI creation tool Stable Diffusion was still being used to blend together photos of fans with the purchased artwork, so naturally, there’s no guarantee that the final product was ethically sourced (the model was likely trained on thousands of handcrafted art).
You can email Bell to voice your displeasure at Media@Bell.ca
And contact FanExpo Canada here on their form to let them know that generative AI garbage has no place at their conventions:
fanexpocanada1.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/req…
— Rosemary Travale (@travale.bsky.social) August 21, 2025 at 10:58 PM
On top of that, it’s just a bad look. Fan Expo started off as a Comic-Con-style celebration of comic books, a medium which would be nothing without hand-drawn artwork. It’s even more egregious when you consider that one of the highlights of Fan Expo, Artist Alley, which is all about local indie artists selling their art. For one of Canada’s biggest companies to effectively undercut them with this AI photo booth is just awful.
All of this led to many people on social media blasting Bell for the booth, including Heather Antos, former Marvel Comics editor and group editor, licensing at IDW on Star Trek. On top of that, some attendees even started an impromptu protest on the show floor.
A Bell spokesperson provided the following statement to MobileSyrup when reached for comment:
“Bell has been a proud supporter of Fan Expo Canada since 2021, by bringing the popular Bell Esports Challenge, a tournament series that helps develop the amateur esports community in Canada. This year, to enhance the fan experience, we introduced a free AI-powered photo booth to celebrate the fandoms that define Fan Expo.
“The booth featured original, ethically sourced content with no copyrighted material and no misuse of likeness. Local artists contributed original sketches for poses, angles, and compositions, and all design overlays were hand-crafted. It was designed purely as a fun souvenir for fans, and we received a lot of positive feedback from people who lined up to enjoy the experience.”
It should be noted that Bell wasn’t the only one using AI at Fan Expo. On social media, users also criticized the number of AI art vendors in Artist Alley. TikTok user Sailor Omizie said roughly one-quarter of Artist Alley was filled with AI artists, a percentage she claims isn’t hyperbolic.
Naturally, this only compounds the Bell issues and raises concerns about Fan Expo’s approach to AI art in general. When asked for comment, a Fan Expo Canada spokesperson provided MobileSyrup with the following statement:
“Artists are the cornerstone of this event and others like it around the world. While our show features innovative brand activations brought to life by third-party sponsors, we remain deeply committed to celebrating and protecting the creative contributions and ownership rights of artists.
“As technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, we recognize its potential to transform and elevate the fan experience—but we also believe it’s essential to consider its impact on creators. All Artist Alley participants confirm that the items on display or for sale are their original creations as part of the application process. While originality can sometimes be difficult to police, we rely on the integrity and professionalism of our artistic community to uphold these standards.
“We are committed to participating in the broader, ongoing conversation around how emerging tools and technologies are integrated and showcased at our events, ensuring they align with our values and continue to uplift and empower the artists who are at the heart of everything we do.”
While generative AI tools from big tech companies have unfortunately spawned a rise in AI-generated art, we have, at least, seen some big conventions push back against it. For instance, Anime NYC, a show with roughly the same 100,000-person attendance as Fan Expo, has a rule against AI-generated art in its own Artist Alley. Meanwhile, the iconic San Diego Comic-Con allows AI art but only if it’s clearly labelled and not-for-sale.
Of course, it’s unclear how effectively these rules are enforced, especially at such a large con, but at least there are pre-emptive steps being taken. For context, there’s nothing mentioned on Fan Expo Canada’s policies page about AI art.
It remains to be seen what will happen with AI art at Fan Expo Canada 2026 or its smaller sister shows, like Toronto Comiccon or other Fan Expo events across Canada.
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