Kehlani slams the music industry’s embrace of artificial intelligence after AI artists made major record deals and achieved success.
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According to reports, Kehlani announced the music industry’s increasing reliance on AI on AI and drew a first five albums without ever stepping into the studio, according to a multi-million dollar record deal.
The Grammy-nominated singer didn’t back down in the Tiktok video released this week, reacting to news created by AI-generated artist Xania Monet (by Mississippi songwriter Telisha “Nikki” Jones and signing a lucrative contract with Neil Jacobson and his Label Hallwood Media.
“There is an AI R&B artist who just signed a multi-million dollar deal and owns the first five R&B albums, and the guy isn’t doing anything,” Kehlani said.
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Jones, who wrote the lyrics, created vocals and music for Xania Monet using the AI platform Suno. According to Billboard, the project has attracted millions of streams.
Kehlani, 30, warns that the growing role of AI in music creation can threaten the livelihoods of working musicians. “AI can also make the whole F####### sing. It can sing the whole song. It can make the whole beat produce.”
Her harshest word is directed at the industry’s willingness to replace manual labor with machine-generated content.
“It’s far beyond our control. There’s nothing, no one on Earth can justify AI for me. Especially not F ###### ai In creative arts, people work hard, train, sleep on the floor, hurt for F ########, and have been hurt all their lives, I’m sorry, I don’t respect it.
@kehlani Everyone in the comments said that God violated her…baby, this is a computer! ! ! 😭😭😭😭😭#ai♬Original Sound-Kehlani
The U.S. Copyright Office weighed it earlier this year, clarifying that while AI can be used as a tool to help human creativity, works that “expressive elements are determined by machines” do not comply with copyright protection.
