Nick Cave has admitted his view of artificial intelligence as an artistic tool has begun to shift.
The 66-year-old singer-songwriter and frontman of The Bad Seeds has long been a vocal critic of artificial intelligence. He previously described the technology as “unbelievably disturbing” and warned of a “humiliating effect” on the creative industries.
But he confessed his view has changed after seeing a new AI-powered video made to mark the 40th anniversary of his song Tupelo.
Writing on The Red Hand Files platform , he said: “As I watched Andrew’s surreal little film, I felt my view of AI as an artistic device soften.
“To some extent, my mind was changed.”
The video he was referring to was created by 56-year-old filmmaker Andrew Dominik, and used AI to animate still archival images.
Tupelo is a 1985 single he has performed “at nearly every Bad Seeds concert since it was first written”. The track depicts the mythic birth of Elvis Presley during a storm in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Nick added on The Red Hand Files he was initially sceptical when he learned AI had been used to create the video that has gone with it.
Filmmaker Andrew has previously collaborated with Nick on the 2016 documentary One More Time With Feeling and the 2022 film This Much I Know to Be True.
Nick added in his online post he found the video “an extraordinarily profound interpretation of the song – a soulful, moving, and entirely original retelling of Tupelo, rich in mythos and a touching tribute to the great Elvis Presley, as well as to the song itself”.
He also said the AI-animated images of Elvis “had an uncanny quality, as if he had been raised from the dead, and the crucifixion-resurrection images at the end were both shocking and deeply affecting”.
In January 2023, Nick publicly condemned ChatGPT, telling fans on his blog The Red Hand Files it should “f*** off and leave songwriting alone”.
He added at the time: “I feel sad about it, disappointed that there are smart people out there that actually think the artistic act is so mundane that it can be replicated by a machine.”
Nick also received multiple fan submissions of ChatGPT-generated lyrics written “in the style of Nick Cave” were ones he viewed as “bulls***” and “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”.