Alice Cooper warns AI will ruin the music industry: “No soul”
Alice Cooper has warned against the powers of AI, which will inevitably spit out “fake rock stars” with “no heart, no soul”.
In his latest interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, the star commented on the latest threat to the creative industry: AI. As many performers, such as Boy George and Charlie Puth, are turning to AI usage for songwriting, Cooper instead has a grave warning about the technology.
He explained: “Well, here’s the deal. I could, right now, create a rock star. I could create a Yungblud, a guy that’s really appealing, rock, tough, cool-looking.”
Continuing with the hypothetical, he added, “I could create a guy named – I don’t care – Starboy or whatever, and make him look great. He doesn’t actually exist.”
Explaining how easy it would be to programme the fraudulent performer, he continued, “I could tell the AI, ‘I want him to sound like Tom Petty and Freddie Mercury. And here’s what the album’s about. Write the songs.’ OK, now you’ve got a rock star that doesn’t exist, and you’ve got an album that doesn’t exist except in this world.”
He persisted, “And what happens if it sells? Who gets the money? AI wrote the songs.”
Cooper explained that this is sure to happen in the near future: “That’s gonna happen. You watch that happen, because the guy that just suggested what it should be did not write the songs.”
After explaining that AI could “write a great song” about anything, he caveated, “The one thing it can’t do – it’s never been in love. It’s never had its heart broken. It’s never been angry. It’s never been happy.”
Therefore, despite its ability to cook up something rapidly, it will always lack an emotional spirit. Cooper added, “It only knows words… But it has no emotion. It has no heart, it has no feel, has no soul to it, and that’s where it dies right there.”
Therefore, the scariest eventuality for Cooper is the future where tech companies can figure out how to model AI on real emotions: “You know that it doesn’t come from any root inside, any heart, any experience. When they get that, then I think… I don’t know what’s going to happen to music.”
Earlier this year, Cooper announced his new memoirs, Devil on My Shoulder, as well as an intimate UK tour to coincide with its release, stretching over nine days in October.
Additionally, this summer, Cooper will be returning to the UK alongside Joe Perry and Johnny Depp as part of The Hollywood Vampires.
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