‘AI has never had its heart broken’

Sting says AI can never replace human artists.

The Every Breath You Take singer says he doesn’t see the technology as competition because it can’t replicate the feelings and authenticity a human can deliver.

Appearing on BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, he said, “I think AI can make perfectly serviceable pop music that you might hear in a railway station or a hotel lobby, and you can hear it, but would you listen to it?”

“Because AI has never had its heart broken, it doesn’t have a story, it has a borrowed story, so you’re not really hearing a song,” Sting added.

The Shape of My Heart hitmaker continued, “So, in that sense, I don’t feel any competition so far, people still want to come and see live concerts, they want to see a human being, a vulnerable human being who can make mistakes and not a machine that is perfect.”

However, Sting did warn that there is a “danger right now with AI potentially destroying the labour economy.”

As AI keeps developing, countless musicians have voiced their concerns about the rise in the use of AI, while others have embraced the technology.

Myles Kennedy just recently said he refuses to use AI to help him write songs.

The Alter Bridge front man insisted there is “nothing better” than penning a hit tune, and he doesn’t ever want to “cheat” the system by allowing artificial intelligence (AI) to give him a helping hand.

Speaking on SiriusXM‘s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, he said, “I will absolutely refuse to use it as a ‘writing tool’. That, to me, is… So, wait, you’re gonna go to something that goes through the entire internet and takes other people’s work, and then somehow that’s going to be something you’re gonna feed off of as your… AI’s now your collaborator?”

“I’ve been writing for the last 10 weeks just because I’ve had some downtime, and there’s nothing I love more than writing – period. Nothing,” he further mentioned, adding, “So why am I gonna deny myself the joy of the great scavenger hunt? That’s the way I look at it.”

Myles Kennedy, who has penned songs for Alter Bridge and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash – finds the songwriting process “so fascinating” and “very obsessive”, and insists he “would be lost” without it.