Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
A new AI Artist named Xania Monet has made her debut on the charts, but some have reservations about real, people, artists being moved off the list for artificial intelligence. Monet hit #30 on the Adult R&B Airplay Chart on November 1st with her song How Was I Supposed to Know? Monet was created by Mississippi based Telisha “Nikki” Jones who is a poet and songwriter. According to CBC, Monet sang Jones’ lyrics set to R&B music with the help of an AI platform called Suno that is typically used for generating AI music.
Since her rise in popularity, Monet’s existence has led people to be concerned about the effect an AI musician would have on the livelihoods of real people and there has been calls to action for legislation to protect the rights of real artists in an industry where such artists don’t have much legal protection to begin with.
Tristan (Triz) Douglas, a radio host for station Flow 98.7, said to CBC “It sounds like a great southern R&B artist, It gives me the sound of, like, Beyoncé or Fantasia.” However, Douglas has reservations about bumping real artists from his station for an AI-generated artist. Monet’s manager Romel Murphy said that the intention behind Monet was to enhance the artistry of Jones’ lyrics.
Murphy’s exact words from CBC were “We used AI as a tool, which is what it was created for. We used it to enhance our artistry. We created real R&B music, music that was rooted in the truth — real lyrics, and her real life experiences and life lessons. AI helped us bring the message to life and deliver it to the world. But the artistry and the message behind it is all human.”
According to USA Today, several artists including producer Jermaine Dupri, singer Kehlani, and rapper Baby Tate have been outspoken on their displeasure with Monet. Baby Tate wrote an Instagram post saying “I am TRULY baffled, bewildered, and befuddled at what this world has come to! AI is not the future. AI is RUINING our future on this planet. Every prompt you type in is slowly contributing towards the degeneration of our environment, This is not creativity. This is covetousness. Those who lack real talent everywhere will look at this example and think that they, too, deserve a space next to the incredible minds that make up the music industry,”
Jones has defended her creation of Monet saying “Anytime something new comes about and it challenges the norm, and challenges what we’re used to, you’re going to get strong reactions behind it, I just feel like AI, it’s the new era that we’re in, and I look at it as a tool, as an instrument.” Jones has even referred to the avatar Monet as an extension of herself and revealed that she was behind Monet to show that Monet was created by a real person.
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