James Blunt “humiliated” by “generic” AI versions of his lyrics

James Blunt has opened up about experimenting with AI (artificial intelligence) lyrics and being “humiliated” by the results.

• READ MORE: James Blunt: “Occasionally I looked at myself and thought, ‘I’d punch you in the face’”

On the March 19 episode of the I Never Thought It Would Happen podcast with host Chris Difford, the pair spoke about the rise of AI and how younger musicians are turning to software to generate lyrics for them.

Blunt went on to reveal that he too had experimented with AI to see if it could create lyrics accurately in his style, but was “humiliated” by the results that he received. Blunt told Difford: “Every single one of us must have, having heard of [AI], typed in and then written ‘Give me a first based on this, in the style of, in my case, a James Blunt lyric’”.

“The truth is, either AI comes up with something very, very generic or my lyrics are just absolutely mundane.”

“So AI has totally humiliated me whenever I’ve gone and asked it to impersonate myself. It’s thought me, if anything, not to use AI and must do better.”

He added: “The thing about songwriting and music generally is, it is your flaws and your failings and your mistakes which make it have character. Character is something that is not formulaic or generic and even if I have written something before and I say ‘Let me write it in the style of me again,’ it will be boring to myself, I need to go out and test myself and push myself to do something different.”

“And some of those things I would make by mistake and 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 concluded on the topic by promising that he will “never” turn to AI for music and lyrics again.

In other news, the singer finally received his NME Award for Worst Album after years of asking for it. Late last year, the singer-songwriter was awarded the accolade in 2006 for his debut album ‘Back To Bedlam’.

In an interview with NME, he again complained that he had never received it before he was then surprised with the gong. “No way, Oh my God,” he said. “I’m so thrilled, I’m so thrilled. That’s the best thing ever. Really, genuinely…I’m deeply, deeply touched. Thank you so much. That’s going beside every other award in the world and probably be the one I’m most proud of. NME thank you so much.”

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