Grimes believes AI is a “bigger deal than Jesus”
Grimes has made the depressing prediction that artificial intelligence will prove to be a “bigger deal than Jesus”.
The singer, real name Claire Elise Boucher, has been one of the most vocal figures about AI in the music industry over the last few years and has now made her biggest statement on the subject yet.
Her latest comments come off the back of news of her forthcoming album, Psy Opera, however, she confirmed in a new conversation with Interview that it features no generative AI, explaining, “I actually don’t use it in my music. People have really misunderstood me here.”
However, Grimes did later confess to using AI on one song, adding, “I don’t care about humans using generative AI. Actually, the only AI on the album is in that one song ‘DeepSeek.’ Some of the lyrics were written by DeepSeek.”
Clarifying her stance, Boucher than revealed her reasoning for allowing her voice to be used in AI songs in 2023, stating, “But with music, everyone was cloning everyone’s voice and suing each other. I was like, ‘Whatever, use my voice, you can be Grimes. I’ll do a revenue share and all publishing splits can go 50-50 with fans on blockchain.'”
She added, “We did it more as an economic experiment. I think copyright is important, but I also think there’s ways in which it can totally change.”
Later in the conversation, Grimes highlighted her stance on AI away from music and why she believes “we need to be aware of what’s going on, and why it’s dangerous.”
The ‘Oblivion’ singer continued, “For the last six years, everyone’s been like, ‘Stop talking about this AI nonsense.’ And I’ve been like, ‘Guys, we’re going to end up in a military disaster. Will anyone listen to me?’ Not to be on my high horse, but this is the most dangerous thing that is ever going to happen. This is a bigger deal than Jesus. It’s the same as monotheism taking over the Western world, if not much, much more impactful.”
Grimes’ comments on the use of AI in a broader sense, as well as in music, come after José González confirmed to Far Out that he wrote a song on his latest album, Against the Dying of the Light, with the help of ChatGPT.
González, who said he is “curious about this new technology”, used the tool to help with writing ‘Joy (Can’t Help But Sing)’, revealing he told ChatGPT that “the first verse should be about this, the second should be about this… So [version] 4.5 was actually way better than 4.0. All of a sudden it could actually rhyme and had the right amount of syllables”.
The Swedish singer-songwriter also clarified, “I still had to prompt for a very long time and did a lot of editing.”
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.