The creator of AI artist “Xania Monet” has spoken out in her first interview.
AI creation Monet has now become the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a radio chart, per Billboard. In an article shared late last month, they pointed to a trend that so far has seen at least one AI artist debut in each of the past four chart weeks.
Monet – described on an Apple Music artist profile as “a contemporary R&B vocalist” – is operated by Mississippi poet and designer Telisha “Nikki” Jones, who reportedly uses the generative software to set her poems to music.
Back in September, it was revealed that she had signed a multimillion-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media after a bidding war between multiple labels, and this week, she became the first AI artist to chart on US Billboard rankings.
Now, Jones has spoken out for the first time in an interview with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, saying: “Xania is an extension of me, so I look at her as a real person.”
In the interview, she clarified that she writes all the lyrics and that they are not AI-generated, though the music is. She also showed King how she uses AI platform Suno to make her music.
When asked about whether her artistic process is a “shortcut,” Jones said: “I wouldn’t call it a shortcut because I still put in the work. And any time 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. And I just feel like AI is the new era that we’re in, and I look at it as a tool, as a instrument, utilise it.”
Monet’s has reportedly racked up 44.4million official U.S. streams, equating to over $52,000 in a matter of months.
Kehlani has previously hit out at the success of Monet, telling fans on TikTok the proliferation of AI in music was “so beyond out of our control.” She went on to highlight the power of AI to create fully formed songs without users having to “credit anyone” involved in making the copyrighted works on which such generative music systems are trained.
“Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me,” she added. Other critics of the tech include Mac DeMarco and SZA, while ABBA‘s Björn Ulvaeus called AI “such a great tool”.
It comes during a period of continued controversy for AI technology in the music industry, with a recent study sharing the stark warning that people working in music are likely to lose a quarter of their income to Artificial Intelligence over the next four years.
Last month, Spotify confirmed that it was cracking down on AI by removing 75million “spammy tracks” and targeting impersonators. The statement, titled ‘Spotify Strengthens AI Protections For Artists, Songwriters, And Producers’, added: “AI technology is evolving fast, and we’ll continue to roll out new policies frequently.”
This followed a report claiming that AI-generated songs were being uploaded to dead musicians’ Spotify profiles without permission.
Earlier this year, an AI-generated ‘band’ called The Velvet Sundown made headlines after gaining around 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners – despite only existing for less than a month. A ‘spokesperson’ for the viral act later admitted that he was running a hoax aimed at “the media”.
As for how The Velvet Sundown got so many listeners on Spotify, he said: “I know we got on some playlists that just have like tons of followers, and it seems to have spiralled from there.”
Meanwhile, Deezer recently revealed that 28 per cent of music uploaded to the streaming platform was fully AI-generated.
Paul McCartney, Kate Bush and Elton John are among the big British artists to have urged Keir Starmer to protect the work of creatives last month. This came after the Prime Minister told NME: “It’s very important we protect creativity, and we’re brilliant at creativity in this country – we punch well above our weight within the country and globally, and we’re all very proud of that.
“We need to get the balance right. That’s why we did a long and important consultation, and we’re going through the responses of that consultation now. So it is a question of getting the balance right.”
His comments followed a call on the UK government from various major acts to change copyright laws to combat the tech as it progresses rapidly. Elton John claimed in January that AI would “dilute and threaten young artists’ earnings”, while backing criticism from Paul McCartney.