Grammy-winning music producer and singer Jack Antonoff blasted what he called “Godless whores” who create art with artificial intelligence (AI). “By all means, drive right off that cliff,” the Bleachers frontman and frequent collaborator with Taylor Swift declared.
In a Wednesday Instagram post, Antonoff offered his “many thoughts” as his band gets closer to the release of their new album, Everyone for Ten Minutes.
Among his sentiments, the musician took a moment to slam the “godless whores” who use AI, asserting that the creation of art is an “ancient ritual,” and “without the process” of actual work, music production is “nothingness.”
“What we do has become an ancient ritual,” Antonoff wrote. “You don’t have to write music anymore, you don’t have to record it and you don’t have to bring the band out and play it.”
“And yet for us, the idea of optimizing what we do is a complete miss of the entire point of what compels us in the first place,” the 42-year-old continued, “We (myself, the band and everyone i know frankly) have never been looking for this work to become quicker or easier.”
The Bleachers singer went on to declare, “We were never frustrated by the randomness and magic it takes,” adding, “We do it for that exact reason — and without the process itself — nothingness.”
“So to everyone who is gassed up about the new ways you can fake making art, by all means, drive right off that cliff,” the “I Wanna Get Better” singer added. “We’re genuinely happy to see you go.”
Antonoff continued:
Generations coming will be engaging in the ancient ritual of writing, recording and performing as it comes to us from god. So as we embark on this strange detour where the bad actors will willingly reveal themselves through slop, and the struggling greats will be further spread thin to make an honest living doing what they were put on earth to do, we (myself, the band and frankly everyone i know) remain more dedicated than ever to reveal what comes from within.
“Writing music, recording and performing it – that’s it. nothing more embarrassing than considering there is a way to optimize that holy process,” Antonoff said. He then quipped: “Godless whores.”
Before signing off, the musician added that what he is also finds “interesting” is “how it’s mainly the out of touch shouting about following this nightmare,” and “the new artists I know are genuinely uninterested in anything that doesn’t come from within.”
In addition to being the frontman of Bleachers, Antonoff has famously collaborated with Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey, among others, and has been a vocal critic of AI for years.
“I don’t give a shit about what it’ll do to the art, because I don’t think it’ll do anything,” he told Music Business Worldwide in 2023. “To be in the presence of something made by a human is a huge part of the source. But I think it’ll fuck up the commerce for a lot of struggling artists.”
“This is the problem with the business side of things,” Antonoff continued. “They can often figure out a way to ‘disrupt’ or break something, but what they can’t seem to ever figure out is, it was never broken.”
“So, then we just go on these cyclical journeys and it’s exhausting and sad that the people who get fucked the most on the journey are the artists themselves,” he added.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.