Grimes Expresses Concerns About the Future of Art in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a prominent topic, with its potential to reshape the music world. Grimes, a musician and creator of her own AI software called Grimes AI, has fully embraced this technology, allowing users to emulate her voice in their music. Grimes AI also employs a forward-thinking approach to royalty distribution, splitting revenue equally between Grimes and the creator.

In a recent interview with Wired, Grimes delved into her thoughts on AI in music and its trajectory.

She shared, “I do think AI is gonna be the next thing. I have a lot of opinions about how it should be pursued.” She explained further, “So another reason I’m here [in San Francisco] is that I’m trying to meet with all the people making generative AI music to try to convince them to do things in ways that are safe for the human psyche.”

When asked what she meant by “safe for the human psyche,” she responded, “We should go to the edge of creativity. But I think we should do it very carefully. The thing that freaks me out is that AI can remove incentives for learning. LLMs (large language models) are great, but I would maybe only have them in school. Is that something that I want my kids to have access to 100 percent of the time? Probably not. I want them to learn how to write; we are in a bit of a literacy crisis. That worries me a lot. Maybe that makes me sound old. But being able to read and write well deeply impacts the way you think.”

When questioned about whether AI-generated music can have soul, she responded enigmatically, “Yes. I signed an NDA, so I’m not allowed to say, but I’ve seen things that have extremely blown me away. I do worry about the future of art a bit.”

Grimes’ sentiments align with those of will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas, who recently emphasized that AI is still in its early stages. He remarked, “You know it’s gonna make better songs than you. It’s Pac-Man right now, we ain’t even got to Halo. We’re in freakin’ Super Mario Bros., we ain’t even got to Call of Duty yet. This thing’s gonna make better songs than you soon.”

On a lighter note in the Wired interview, Grimes was asked which recording session in history she would like to go back in time to witness. She replied, “I would go see Beethoven. But that’s not a recording session. I’d try to check if Beethoven was actually deaf. But the Ninth, that’d be sick. That’s what I like. I know it’s basic, but I love, love Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. So I’d probably go see that, I guess.”