Jack Antonoff posted a lengthy open letter to Instagram on Wednesday attacking musicians and producers who use artificial intelligence, calling them "Godless whores" and urging them to abandon the practice entirely.
The post, written by the Bleachers frontman and frequent Taylor Swift collaborator, centered on what he described as the irreplaceable, almost sacred nature of music creation. "What we do has become an ancient ritual," he wrote. "You don't have to write music, you don't have to record it and you don't have to bring out the band and play it. And yet for us, the idea of optimizing what we do is a complete miss of the entire point of what compels us in the first place. We (myself, the band and everyone I know, frankly) have never been looking for this work to become quicker or easier. We were never frustrated by the randomness and magic it takes. We do it for that exact reason — and without the process itself ::: nothingness."
Antonoff predicted that artists using AI would eventually expose themselves through the quality of what they produce. "So to everyone who is gassed up about the new ways you can fake making art, by all means, drive right off that cliff. We're genuinely happy to see you go," he wrote. "Generations coming will be engaging in the ancient ritual of writing, recording and performing as it comes to us from God."
He closed with a direct attack on the technology's loudest proponents. "Also interesting to me how it's mainly the out of touch shouting about following this nightmare," he wrote. "The new artists I know are genuinely uninterested in anything that doesn't come from within."
Antonoff is far from alone in his opposition. Billie Eilish and Ed Sheeran have also spoken out against AI in music. On the other side, Grimes, David Guetta, and Liam Gallagher have embraced the technology, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The AI music industry is growing rapidly regardless of the debate. Suno, described as the music industry's most prominent AI music generation platform, announced earlier this year that it has surpassed two million paid subscribers.
Not all working musicians are as firmly opposed as Antonoff. Autumn Rowe, a songwriter with credits on songs by Jon Batiste, Dua Lipa, and Ava Max, told The Hollywood Reporter she remains skeptical but has begun experimenting lightly with Suno. "I've got concerns with AI, I worry about younger writers who use Suno before they've spent the many, many hours crafting songs," Rowe said. "But I do think AI in music will keep getting more prominent, and I think it could help writers get more leverage if they can do" more with less.