At the start of 2023, Nick Cave got angry. Angry at artificial intelligence for making a mockery of his career. Songwriting has long been associated with the inherent ability to be soulful. But now one Google search will throw up endless AI capable of making lyricism universal: Audoir for song lyrics and poetry, Jarvis for banishing writer’s block, and ChatGPT for anything, everything and more. To put it plainly, the 65-year-old singer had had enough of being simulated.
“With all the love and respect in the world, the track is bulls*** and a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human,” he responded in a blog post to a fan who’d sent him song lyrics “in the style of Nick Cave”, generated by ChatGPT.
