In Nov. 2025, AI artist Xania Monet’s song “How Was I Supposed to Know?” hit Billboard’s Adult R&B Chart, prompting countless internet users globally to question the likeliness of the beloved emotion-embedded prose-like-music having a bright future.
AI’s recent and entirely not-so-subtle entry into creative spaces has sparked-up more than debate between artists and the executives who control the industry. Many artists view it as a collaborative tool, one that could take the place of a safety net between a rock and a hard place when one finds themselves blindly grasping at straws. “There’s a lot of [AI] advancements that can be for the positive” said Mr. Jonathan Paez, a Talent Acquisitioner and Chicago Native with a passion for creating music on his own, but to even put AI to use you “need a human involved” for the input action to go as planned.
Yet this view exists alongside widespread concern. According to a recent survey done by PRS for Music among an unspecified number of people, approximately “four in five (79 percent) music creators agree that they are worried about AI-generated music competing with human-created music” with many creators believing it may pose a direct threat to their careers in the long term and further calling out for protection against the “predatory” software in a ARA open letter signed by over 200 notable artists in spring of 2024. With the letter emphasizing how we as a society can no longer turn a blind eye but rather should fight to “protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists’ voices and likeness, violate creators’ rights, and destroy the [industries] ecosystem.” Calling for tech companies to pledge that they will not develop services capable of “undermining songwriters and artists or prevents them from earning fair compensation for their art” in the future.
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy and MusiCares, commented on how the academy is determining how they “will treat songs and recordings that have been generated or assisted by artificial intelligence” in an interview for Billboard in Dec. 2025. Admitting how challenging this has been for him because he wants to “advocate for human members and human creators, but also [recognize] that this technology is here” and they need to find a place for it that won’t pose them as human artist’s direct competitors in award categories. He had even gone about speaking about this topic again in a recent podcast-interview for the BBC after the 2026 Grammy ceremony, but has not made any official announcements of possible changes.
Artificial intelligence has not only become a part of daily life, but it has begun to embed itself into more than just the algorithms of social media platforms or in shortened search results. It has progressed into the creative spaces and has begun to raise concerns of authenticity from artists who already use these tools or advocate for them such as musician Imogen Heap, Grimes, and ABBA’s own Björn Ulvaeus. The most one can do at this moment is keep a close eye on what AI may generate next – that may very well greatly impact music as we have known it.
