Nick Cave says ChatGPT cannot replicate ‘humanness’ as The Bad Seeds frontman takes down AI

Nick Cave has ridiculed ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence as he says the tech products cannot replicate the “humanness” of writing.

The Bad Seeds‘ frontman slammed the technology, which has been used increasingly in the last few years. A post to the Red Hand Files, Cave‘s open question and answers blog, saw the veteran musician comment on the current state of technology in art. A fan who “produced” a Cave song with artificial intelligence shared the results with The Mercy Seat songwriter, who was horrified by the outcome. Not only did Cave call the result a “travesty” but noted several others had sent in efforts from ChatGPT, which had tried and failed to replicate his work.

Cave wrote: “Suffice to say, I do not feel the same enthusiasm around this technology. I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster.

“It can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as it moves us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction. Who can possibly say which? Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark. The apocalypse is well on its way. This song sucks.”

Cave went on to call the replication a “travesty” and said ChatGPT “cannot create a genuine song.” He added: “It could perhaps in time create a song that is, on the surface, indistinguishable from an original, but it will always be a replication, a kind of burlesque.

Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing, it has not had the audacity to reach beyond its limitations, and hence it doesn’t have the capacity for a shared transcendent experience, as it has no limitations from which to transcend.

“ChatGPT’s melancholy role is that it is destined to imitate and can never have an authentic human experience, no matter how devalued and inconsequential the human experience may in time become.”

The Bad Seeds frontman went on to call the song “bullshit” and that ChatGPT could never replicate the “humanness” offered by truly great songwriting. He wrote: “It may sound like I’m taking all this a little too personally, but I’m a songwriter who is engaged, at this very moment, in the process of songwriting.

“It’s a blood and guts business, here at my desk, that requires something of me to initiate the new and fresh idea. It requires my humanness. What that new idea is, I don’t know, but it is out there somewhere, searching for me. In time, we will find each other.

“Mark, thanks for the song, but with all the love and respect in the world, this song is bullshit, a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human, and, well, I don’t much like it.”

It comes as the Jarvis Cocker-fronted band, Pulp, faced criticism from fans for using generative artificial intelligence for the music video of lead single, Spike Island. Though the song was praised by listeners and critics, the use of generative artificial intelligence as a way of mocking the tech was roundly criticised.

A fan on Twitter has since pointed out the “privilege” at the heart of the song, with the artificially generated video contrasting with the “lovely sentiment” heard on Spike Island.

They wrote: “So privileged as well, on the video he sings, ‘I was born to perform / It’s a calling,’ and it’s a lovely sentiment but there’s many young people now who were born to do creative things — like make videos — and AI is displacing them.”