David Guetta says the future of music is in AI

Chart-topping DJ David Guetta has said “the future of music is in AI” after he used the technology to add a vocal in the style of Eminem to a recent song.

The DJ used two artificial intelligence sites to create lyrics and a rap in the style of the US star for a live show.

The French producer has said he will not release the track commercially.

But he said he thinks musicians will use AI as a tool to create new sounds in the future, because “every new music style comes from a new technology”.

Speaking to BBC music correspondent Mark Savage at the Brit Awards, Guetta said: “I’m sure the future of music is in AI. For sure. There’s no doubt. But as a tool.”

Guetta won the award for best producer at Saturday’s ceremony.

“Nothing is going to replace taste,” he said. “What defines an artist is, you have a certain taste, you have a certain type of emotion you want to express, and you’re going to use all the modern instruments to do that.”

He compared AI to instruments that have led to musical revolutions in the past.

“Probably there would be no rock ‘n’ roll if there was no electric guitar. There would be no acid house without the Roland TB-303 [bass synthesiser] or the Roland TR-909 drum machine. There would be no hip-hop without the sampler.

“I think really AI might define new musical styles. I believe that every new music style comes from a new technology.”

In a video he posted last week, Guetta said he created the Eminem-style vocal “as a joke” but “it worked so good, I could not believe it”.

He told the BBC he posted it “because I just wanted to open the discussion and bring awareness”.

“It’s very funny, actually, because a lot of people are reacting. Some of them are like, ‘Oh, this is genius.’ Some of them are getting super mad at me, but I’m not going to release the record.

“It is impossible to think that it’s a real collab, but it sounds exactly like him [Eminem],” he added.

Some fans reacting to his Twitter post were impressed with the experiment, but others were less keen, with YouTube and TikToker Bilawal Sidhu tweeting: “And here is the problem with the state of AI proliferation today. Handcuffed creativity.”

Eminem has not yet responded.

Whatever your view, AI is here to stay.

Variety noted last week that more AI-generated songs have been going viral on TikTok in recent months, with fans taking existing songs and using software to make them sound like another artist is singing them.

Last month, Drake fans began using an AI generator to create their own tracks in the style of the Canadian rapper.

Also in January, Nick Cave wrote a scathing review of an artificial intelligence system that tried to write a song “in the style of Nick Cave”.

The singer called the results “a grotesque mockery” and “a travesty”.