David Guetta is now the latest proponent of an incredibly provocative trend that has been going around the music scene: artificial intelligence. Whether it be FN Meka, the A.I. rapper who inked a deal with Capitol Records and subsequently lost it due to cultural appropriation concerns, or Drayk.it, the website that allows people to use an A.I.-generated replica of Drake's voice and make it sing any song they desire, A.I. has gained many fans and critics.
Most recently, the cover art for Lil Yachty's latest studio album Let's Start Here (Jan. 27) sparked conversation among listeners, considering he employed an A.I. generator to craft the whimsical album art. After a Twitter user brought attention to this decision, saying it "sucks so much," Yachty succinctly replied "shut up," emphasizing even more the line in the sand drawn between A.I. lovers and haters.
David Guetta Loves A.I.
On Feb. 3, Guetta uploaded a video to Twitter of his recent concert, where he debuts a new track that features an appearance from an A.I.-generated Eminem voice. Before an epic beat drop, the Eminem voice repeats the phrase "This is the future rave sound. I'm getting awesome and underground." After the clip of this performance, Guetta is seen explaining this decision and the process of making the Eminem replica, where he appears to be ecstatic about his newfound love for artificial intelligence.
"Eminem, bro! There's something that I made as a joke, and it worked so good I could not believe it," he said. "I discovered those websites about A.I. Basically, you can write lyrics in the style of any artist you like. So I write a verse in the style of Eminem about Future Rave. And I went to another A.I. website that can recreate the voice. I put the text in that and I played the record, and people went nuts!"
In the thread underneath Guetta's Twitter post, he elaborates that he will not release the song for commercial use: "obviously I won’t release this commercially." But, the main argument against A.I. from its dissenters is that it takes away the efforts of artists or uses them as reference points and does not credit them and compensate them financially. And even though Guetta does not plan to add this song to streaming platforms, he already used it in a concert setting that he got paid for.
