As AI is becoming more and more entrenched in modern music-making, many are testing the boundaries of the still-quite-new technology. One such artist is “You’re Beautiful” singer James Blunt, who asked AI to replicate his lyrical style, only to find that “either AI comes up with something very, very generic or my lyrics are just absolutely mundane.”
The mostly-joking comments from Blunt arrived in his recent interview with Squeeze’s Chris Difford on the podcast I Never Thought It Would Happen. After being asked what he thought about Young people using AI to write lyrics for them, Blunt said, “Every single one of us must have, having heard of [AI], typed in and then written ‘Give me a verse based on this, in the style of, in my case, a James Blunt lyric’”
Whenever he’s done it, though, Blunt was pretty disappointed in the “absolutely mundane” results. “So, AI has totally humiliated me whenever I’ve asked it to impersonate myself,” he told Difford. “It’s taught me, if anything, not to use AI, and [I] must do better.”
Continuing, the two artists talked about the possible short-comings of AI, as the technology still struggles to perfect replicating a “human touch.” As Blunt put it, “The thing about songwriting and music generally is, it is your flaws and your failings and your mistakes which make it have character… I don’t think AI can do that yet. I don’t think it can bring in true character flaws and mistakes at this stage.”
Blunt, of course, reached the top of the charts in 2005 with “You’re Beautiful,” a flaw-filled but nonetheless beloved tune that Consequence once called the 10th worst No. 1 pop song of all time.
Meanwhile, Blunt shared his seventh album, Who We Used to Be, last October. This year, he’s touring Europe and Australia. Check out his upcoming dates, and grab tickets to see him here.