There are a lot of obvious takeaways from this week's midterm elections, and one of them is that Americans are not even remotely into what the tech industry wants to force on us. People are simply not into AI and data centers. This isn't just backward folks primitively resisting an inevitable advancement.
It's a full-on rejection, a widespread sense of revulsion. But plenty of long-established artists, even total legends, haven't fully gotten that memo yet. Nile Rodgers is one of them.
Rodgers, Chic bandleader and pop mastermind, has been advocating for AI-generated music for at least a few years. In 2023, Rodgers said, "“I hear people talking fake stuff. That sounds like noise to me.
That sounds like the noise we've been hearing all our lives... The drum machine and sequencer have been wonderful tools. There are bands that could never have had a record if it wasn't for a sequencer." It's a common argument, but drum machines and sequencers don't make ghastly uncanny-valley nightmares like the one that Rodgers seems to be working on.
Earlier this week, Rodgers posted a video of himself getting scanned for what he calls "a #great #art project that’s next #level." He added, "When I saw the Eagles at The Sphere in Vegas I envisioned stories with incredible environments & music. It's future time!" In the comments of that post, someone wrote, "Ai slop is like some kind of magic for old ppl." In response, Rogers commented, "Do you have a problem with CGI? I can't believe you'd go on record without even seeing what I'm doing.
Oh well... sending love anyway. Let me know when you see the work if you feel the same way your brain is taking you." We still haven't seen the work, at least in its finished form. Yesterday, however, Rodgers posted a few images from this AI video for his forthcoming benefit single "The Christmas Song." The project seems to be made with the best of intentions, but those pictures look truly hideous.
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