Sting says AI can never replace human artists.
The Every Breath You Take singer says he doesn’t see the technology as competition because it can’t replicate genuine human emotion.
Appearing on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, he said: “I think AI can make perfectly serviceable pop music that you might hear in a railway station or a hotel lobby, and you can hear it, but would you listen to it?
“Because AI has never had its heart broken, it doesn’t have a story, it has a borrowed story, so you’re not really hearing a song.
“So, in that sense, I don’t feel any competition so far, people still want to come and see live concerts, they want to see a human being, a vulnerable human being who can make mistakes and not a machine that is perfect.”
However, the 74-year-old rocker warned there is a “danger right now with AI potentially destroying the labour economy”.
Countless musicians have voiced their concerns about the rise in the use of AI, while others have embraced the technology.
Myles Kennedy just recently said he refuses to use AI to help him write songs.
The Alter Bridge frontman insisted there is “nothing better” than penning a hit tune, and he doesn’t ever want to “cheat” the system by allowing artificial intelligence (AI) to give him a helping hand.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, he said: “I will absolutely refuse to use it as a ‘writing tool’. That, to me, is… So wait, you’re gonna go to something that goes through the entire internet and takes other people’s work, and then somehow that’s going to be something you’re gonna feed off of as your … AI’s now your collaborator?
“I’ve been writing for the last 10 weeks just because I’ve had some downtime, and there’s nothing I love more than writing – period. Nothing.
“So why am I gonna deny myself the joy of the great scavenger hunt? That’s the way I look at it.
“You’re trying to problem solve and find parts and navigate through all of this stuff, and then when you find it, it’s like finding gold.
“There’s nothing better, as far as just the satisfaction you get.
“So why would I cheat myself by using AI to cut to the song that’s created in an afternoon?
“I’m kind of old school, I guess.
“But then there are other people who are gonna say, ‘You know what? I use AI, and it helps me write, and I’m more prolific because of it.’
“And I’m, like, ‘OK, well, if that works for you, good on you.’ But I’m not joining in on that one.”
Myles – who has penned songs for Alter Bridge and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash – finds the songwriting process “so fascinating” and “very obsessive”, and insists he “would be lost” without it.
On the other side, Boy George has generated songs using AI.
