Grimes says AI can make music, but humans must still tell the story

The singer-songwriter Grimes has embraced AI-generated music, but she insists that even as music formats change, humans must still play a central role.

Grimes appeared at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado on Monday alongside Robert Kyncl, chief executive of Warner Music Group. Debating the future for music artists in the age of AI, both championed the enduring value of human connection and storytelling in an increasingly digital world. Kyncl predicted that an abundance of AI-generated slop will trigger a reaction by audiences to intentionally look for human-only services. Grimes, meanwhile, urged artists to think of their work as philosophers, and poets.

“We’re lucky to be making art in an era where there’s such extreme change,” she said. “It’s like most artists don’t get to be tied into a great historical event that they can interpret.”

In 2023, Grimes began an AI software program........

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