Cradle Of Filth’s Dani Filth believes AI is “shit” and “a bit of a problem”
Cradle Of Filth‘s frontman Dani Filth has come out against AI, calling it “shit” and “a bit of a problem”.
The comments came in an interview with Spanish publication Metal Journal, when the singer was asked what he thinks of the emerging technology: “It’s dangerous,” he said. “I mean, it’s gonna have benefits, yeah. Everything has benefits. There will be disabled people that will benefit from the use of AI. There’ll be historians and things that just do work for you that make it easy.
“But that’s not the point,” he added. “The point is, it’s soulless.” He went on to compare the rise in AI to streaming, saying having unlimited, easy access to music makes people “lazy”.
“There’s no soul searching, there’s no going to a record store and finding an album… There was something very spiritual about spending the time drifting from shop to shop looking [for an album you really wanted]. Now you just press a button,” he said. “And I think you lose the capacity to enjoy things as much… I do think that discovering bands and growing with bands and having them shape your parts of your life is important too.
“So no, I think AI is shit. I think it is a danger. I’m not talking about Terminator robots and Skynet, although that could be a problem eventually, but I just think, for people’s spiritual growth, for the replacement of hard work of artists in whatever they do, whether it’s music, radio, TV, film, anything, I think it’s a bit of a problem.”
The use of AI in creative fields has been a growing topic of debate in recent years. Back in April, Billie Eilish, Robert Smith, Stevie Wonder and Nicki Minaj were among the famous artists who signed an open letter warning against the “predatory” use of artificial intelligence.
Before then a new act was approved in Tennessee to protect musicians from AI deepfakes. That move came after several US politicians argued for the need for legislation to catch up with advancements in AI technology after graphic AI images of Taylor Swift circulated widely on social media in January.
More recently, Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and other industry figures were among those who signed a statement against using creatives’ work to train AI, Mark Zuckerberg said that it may lead to some “interesting” but “soulless” tracks, and David Attenborough said he was “profoundly disturbed” by an AI clone of his voice.
In other Cradle Of Filth news, earlier this year the band gave fans an update on when to expect the release of their long-awaited collaboration with Ed Sheeran.
The collaboration was first revealed in 2021, when the band’s frontman Dani Filth revealed that he had been in touch with the pop star and that Sheeran had invited him “up to his place”.
Work on the track was progressing in 2022 according to Filth, with work then halted due to Sheeran becoming a father. Filth was then pictured at the pub with Sheeran and producer Scott Atkins in late 2022, with a tentative release date of summer 2023 then set.
While the track didn’t arrive then, Filth spoke to Polish YouTube channel Pełna Kulturka about progress on the track.
“One of the surprises, obviously, but it’s not so much a surprise is that we’ve got a song that we have Ed Sheeran guesting on,” he said. “It’s gonna be on the album.”
Elsewhere, Cradle Of Filth members Marek “Ashok” Šmerda (guitar) and Zoë M. Federoff (keyboard/vocals) announced that they were engaged in a New Year’s post on Instagram.
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Laura Molloy
NME
