Englewood pauses AI-generated content after backlash on renewable energy video

The City of Englewood promoted its work preventing carbon dioxide emissions by…causing carbon dioxide emissions.

In honor of its renewable natural gas system, the city shared a social media video on May 26. It highlighted the system’s impact on the local environment, such as preventing 3,700 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every year by converting methane and carbon dioxide from wastewater treatment into renewable fuel instead of flaring the biogas.

But the groundbreaking system — the first of its kind in Colorado — was overshadowed by the fact that the video was generated with an artificial intelligence model.

Generative AI requires major energy and water consumption. By 2030, the rate of AI growth in the United States is expected to put an additional 24 to 44 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to Cornell University research. And text-to-video generation has the worst environmental impact of any AI use, according to a report by TRG Datacenters.

The irony was not lost on the Englewood community, which rallied in the comment sections to condemn the AI video. Now, the city says it is pausing its use of AI-generated content.

“The City of Englewood has interim AI guidelines that were developed with several city departments throughout 2025. The guidelines allow for generative AI images, audio and videos based on prompts,” says city spokesperson Amanda Arnce. “Although these guidelines are in place, based on public feedback from the South Platte Renew video, the city is pausing the use of AI-generated graphics and video and will be revisiting the city’s AI policy this summer to ensure it represents the wishes of our community.”

As of Wednesday evening, every comment left on the city’s Instagram and Facebook posts opposed the AI-generated video.

“Gotta love seeing y’all wasting water with AI slop while we’re in a drought,” one commenter wrote. “Do you know what else prevents CO2 [from] entering the atmosphere? Avoiding AI slop,” another added. “Really, truly wish you would not represent our town with AI content,” wrote a third.

The city did not directly respond to any of the comments, although it did update the Facebook post to include a disclaimer: “This video was prepared with the assistance of AI tools and has been reviewed for accuracy by city staff.”

That review evidently did not save the video from displaying several telltale signs of AI-generated content.

Some of the cartoonishly animated people have either too few fingers or fingers fused together. The American flag waving in the wind has only 11 stripes instead of 13. The language on multiple background signs is unintelligible gibberish. And the most offensive: Downtown Denver’s skyline is unrecognizable, and inexplicably includes a massive cash register (not to be mistaken for the cash register building, which appears separately, though with its top deformed).

The city’s interim guidelines describe AI visuals as powerful tools that empower users to perform “beyond your artistic skills.” Arnce says one of the Englewood Communications Department’s high-priority goals “is to make city communications more engaging and accessible,” as the controversial video was intended to do.

Time will tell whether the city’s updated AI policy will reflect the message of the video: “helping build a sustainable future, one molecule at a time.”