Rapper and Hollywood star Ice Cube upped his anti-establishment bona fides this week and excoriated artificial intelligence as a tool that will essentially lead to laziness and creative droughts.
The rapper made his position known about AI during an interview with Charlamagne Tha God on The Breakfast Club this week.
“I think it’s wack,” Ice Cube said. “I think it’s the worst shit ever. I think it’s gonna put a lot of people out of business and out of work. Everything is gonna be more vanilla. It’s not gonna be more creative. It’s actually gonna go the other way.”
“People are gonna get lazier. Nobody’s gonna work hard and nobody’s gonna attain the knowledge so they can write it down. They’re just gonna ask for the knowledge. People are just gonna get stupider,” he added.
Acknowledging that AI will likely be a part of society, for better or worse, Ice Cube said that people who might lose jobs to AI need to start thinking outside the box. He likened it to candle makers that adapted after the invention of the lightbulb.
“Look. When they invented the light bulb, the candle maker had to figure out how to make money. So they started making candles that smell like all kinds of stuff to make money. So, adapt. Adapt or die. And that’s just it,” he said.
On its impact on art, Charlamagne Tha God said that some AI might have a surface-level quality that has no real soul.
“Sonically, it sounds cool but it lacks soul. There’s no spirit to it,” Charlamagne said. “There’s just nothing to it. That’s why I don’t like that. I just feel like there’s no spirit to this music. Even when they do it with artists who are still with us, it don’t feel like there’s no spirit to it. There’s no soul to it so it definitely sounds spiritless when it’s people who are no longer with us.”
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) enacted an industry-wide strike this past May, citing the proliferation of AI as one of their chief concerns. Just one month later, Disney faced incredible backlash when it used AI to create the opening credits sequence for the new Marvel series Secret Invasion. Director Steven Spielberg has also warned that AI could have a negative impact on art in the future.
As Breitbart News reported, Ice Cube became an enemy of political and Hollywood establishments when he announced his “Fuck the Gatekeepers” tour last month.
“Some of you may not have realized that I’m not part of ‘The Club,’” the rapper said. “And a lot of you listening to me right now, you’re not part of ‘The Club’ either. And what I’ve realized with ‘The Club’ is what makes them so mad is when you don’t wanna be a part of their fucking club. That pisses them off. ”
“What club am I talking about? I’m talking about the club of gatekeepers that we all got to deal with. You know who they are and they definitely know who they are,” he added.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.