Sheryl Crow is the latest artist to chime in on the rising threat of AI in music. Amid conversations of music labels banding together to levy lawsuits against a number of AI startups, the Grammy-winning member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame made her stance known — particularly as it relates to a certain flop-era rapper.
In a recent interview with BBC, Crow expressed her distaste for the technology, characterizing it as a “slippery slope” and “a betrayal” that “goes against everything humanity is based on.”
She expressed that she was particularly bothered by Drake and his decision to use AI-generated vocals made to sound like the late Tupac on a Kendrick Lamar diss track earlier this year. The song was taken down after Tupac’s estate threatened a lawsuit — but the damage was already done in Crow’s book.
“You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that,” she explained to BBC. “I’m sure Drake thought, ‘Yeah, I shouldn’t do it, but I’ll say sorry later.’ But it’s already done, and people will find it even if he takes it down. It’s hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.”
In the same interview, she revealed that her deep-rooted aversion to AI technology partly stemmed from an experiment where her demo tracks were fed to an artificial intelligence designed to make it sound like her songs were being recorded by John Mayer. She was so frighted by the accuracy that she was “hyperventilating.”
According to Crow, though, all is not lost yet. “AI can do lots of things, but it can’t go out and play live,” she continued. “So as long as we have live music, as long as we have hands holding a paintbrush, all is not lost.”
Meanwhile, as Kendrick Lamar proves Sheryl Crow’s point and unites people through the power of music, Drake has made the decision to purchase a melodramatic armored truck.
