Sheryl Crow: 'Resurrecting Tupac with AI is hateful'

RedC

Gold Member
Speaking to the BBC, she characterises the technology as a "slippery slope" and "a betrayal" that "goes against everything humanity is based on".

Her attention was focused on the software last year, after meeting a young songwriter who'd been employing it in her work.

Frustrated that male artists wouldn't listen to her demos, Crow's acquaintance paid to have an AI clone of singer-songwriter John Mayer replace her vocals.

When Crow heard the song, she was so "terrified" that she was "literally hyperventilating".

"I know John and I know the nuances of his voice," she says. "And there would be no way you'd have been able to tell that he was not singing that song."

Her horror deepened when Drake used AI to resurrect the voice of late rapper Tupac Shakur on his song Taylor Made Freestyle earlier this year.

The track was subsequently removed after lawyers from Tupac's estate threatened to sue, but Crow says it should never have been released in the first place.

"You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that," she protests.

"I'm sure Drake thought, 'Yeah, I shouldn't do it, but I'll say sorry later'. But it's already done, and people will find it even if he takes it down.

"It's hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.
Player Dont Be Hatin GIF by Jamie Kennedy
 
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I am against AI and holograms for dead artists. They are dead and no matter what illusion they create they will never bring back an artist that passed.
 
For me most music and film stopped advancing about 20 years ago, so if I can just use AI to make more 80s action, horror, and comedy films I'm preeeeety much ready to check out of modern life and plug into the matrix :p
 
Some people will probably think she is being melodramatic, but I believe she's 100% correct.

AI use in music, and art in general, is shameful to say the least. Or it should be.
 
I am against AI and holograms for dead artists. They are dead and no matter what illusion they create they will never bring back an artist that passed.

Business types who basically own these dead people's images and don't care. They'll use any gimmick available to them if it's profitable.

I've noticed that every time some celebrity dies, all of these old Late Night shows immediately upload every interview done with them. It's a strange thing. I'm not mad that all of sudden my front page of YouTube has a few old Donald Sutherland interviews suddenly popping up, I happen to like his acting, but the cynic in me knows all too well that it's just some assholes out to capitalize on some dead guy or lady. But now they can live on (continue to generate income) through AI... How fucked.
 
Frankly, I agree. Let the dead sleep. Enjoy the stuff they made, not the stuff we think we know better than them and are forcing them to make.
 
For me most music and film stopped advancing about 20 years ago, so if I can just use AI to make more 80s action, horror, and comedy films I'm preeeeety much ready to check out of modern life and plug into the matrix :p

To be fair the 20th century was an insanely rapid & condensed advancement of technology/artistry that had never been seen before in our species' recorded history. Thats a pretty high bar. I think we're just in a slump.
 
The Tupac thing seems to have really blown up in Drake's face. It allowed Kendrick to rally people (to be clear I don't mean Sheryl Crow, more people in that scene) around him by making the case that Drake was disrespecting a legend like that.
 
If it makes her happy...

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"It's hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.
Goddam hollywood jedis talking about life force if you care so much about life why are you acting like such ghouls ?
 
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When Crow heard the song, she was so "terrified" that she was "literally hyperventilating".
I know that feeling all too well.
It happens to me every time I read or hear someone say that there are only two genders or that biological men can't be women.
 
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It's definitely wrong, but so far the most advances in AI has been in doing the wrong stuff instead of the great that could be done with AI.
But it's understandable that a bunch of geeks would want to advance something to devalue real talent.
 
I don't think Tupac cares at this point. If he was alive He might think it's cool that he is getting to stay relevant.

Considering he was an entertainer and all any entertainer wants is to live on in perpetuity it's actually an honor that people want to bring him back as a digital ghost.
 
When Crow heard the song, she was so "terrified" that she was "literally hyperventilating".

Enough of the exaggerations, already.
 
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