Nick Cave on AI: “Its intent is to completely sidestep the sort of inconvenience of the artistic struggle, going straight to the commodity, which reflects on us, what we are, as human beings, which is just things that consume stuff.”
ADVERTISEMENTSinger songwriter Nick Cave has never been shy to share his opinions on artificial intelligence, specifically its nefarious effects on the music industry and artistry.
He has previously labelled ChatGPT as an exercise in “replication as travesty” and called out algorithmically generated songs as “bullshit” and “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”.
Now, in a new interview with The Australian, Cave further voiced his fear that AI will have a “humiliating effect” on the creative industries.
“I’m an enormously optimistic person about the world in general, but I think the demoralising effect or the humiliating effect that AI will have on us as a species, it will stop us caring about something like the artistic struggle that we will just accept what is fed to us through these things.”
He continued: “Its intent is to completely sidestep the sort of inconvenience of the artistic struggle, going straight to the commodity, which reflects on us, what we are, as human beings, which is just things that consume stuff.”
“We don’t make things anymore. We just consume stuff. It’s frightening.”
He also took aim at the AI music generator Suno, saying it was “utterly banal” with “no soul or spirit”, and concluded by saying: “I find it all unbelievably disturbing. I’m not worried about my own job or something like that about being replaced or something. Just what it’s saying about us as human beings.”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are releasing their latest album ‘Wild God’ on 30 August and are set to embark on a European and UK tour later this autumn.
Here are the dates:
September
- 24 – Oberhausen, Germany
- 26 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 29 – Berlin, Germany
October
- 2 – Oslo, Norway
- 3 – Stockholm, Sweden
- 5 – Copenhagen, Denmark
- 8 – Hamburg, Germany
- 10 – Lodz, Poland
- 11 – Krakow, Poland
- 13 – Budapest, Hungary
- 15 – Zagreb, Croatia
- 17 – Prague, Czechia
- 18 – Munich, Germany
- 20 – Milan, Italy
- 22 – Zurich, Switzerland
- 24 – Barcelona, Spain
- 25 – Madrid, Spain
- 27 – Lisbon, Portugal
- 30 – Antwerp, Belgium
November
- 2 – Leeds, UK
- 3 – Glasgow, UK
- 5 – Manchester, UK
- 6 – Cardiff, UK
- 8 – London, UK
- 12 – Dublin, Ireland
- 15 – Birmingham, UK
- 17 – Paris, France
Additional sources • The Australian
