SZA Slams ‘Disgusting’ Artists Using AI

SZA took to Instagram on Saturday to slam artists using AI music generators such as Suno, alleging producer Diplo had equity in the company and was trying to train it on “the best and brightest black minds of writers and producers.”

“We make up 13% of the American population yet influence the world w our sound and perspective,” she wrote in a caption on her private “notmusicatalliswear” Instagram account. ”I AINT HEARD A WHITE AI SONG YET…We have no protection in legislature medical or creative. The easiest to steal from. DO NOT GIVE AWAY YOUR VIBRANIUM !!! DO NOT TRAIN AI W YOUR GENIUS.”

While a rep for Diplo did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment, he has spoken positively about using Suno and AI.

SZA brought her frustration to her main, eponymous Instagram account, claiming in a Story post that a search for her name showed AI models have been trained on 238 of her songs.

“If your [sic] a musician and you support this degenerate shit ? Your [sic] DISGUSTING and there’s NOTHING YOU COULD EVER SAY TO ME TO MAKE THIS OKAY,” she wrote. “I hope u have the life u deserve.” 

Representatives for SZA did not respond to immediate requests for comment. A Suno spokesperson declined to comment and pointed to a LinkedIn post from the company’s chief product officer, Jack Brody, who wrote last week that Suno’s training metadata does not include artists’ names, cannot replicate material it was trained on and that Suno was increasingly trying to improve impersonation detection.

SZA’s frustration over the music industry’s adoption of AI reflects the variety of stances musicians have taken to the technology, with some ranging from embrace to evisceration. Jack Antonoff last month called those who’ve made music with AI “godless whores” and “bad actors” that “will willingly reveal themselves through slop,” while producers like Will.i.am and Timbaland have invested in AI companies. Sony Music, which owns SZA’s label RCA Records, is also in active litigation against Suno and competitor Udio, though labels Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have settled their lawsuits against the music generators. (Those settlements prompted another lawsuit against the labels by the  American Federation of Musicians.)

Diplo has taken a similarly direct approach — by slamming artists who oppose using the technology. He in an April interview that “there’s no fighting AI” and that he didn’t need human voices for his tracks anymore because “I can get the best voice from AI”

“The customer and accessibility is what’s always going to be triumphant,” Diplo said. “You’re never going to be like, ‘I’m going to choose the artistry and the hard work’. You can talk that all you want, and some people will love that, but 99% of people are going to wanna love the best product made the quickest, made the cheapest – that’s what the American economy is.”

In a follow-up X post, Diplo wrote that artists needed to “adapt or just like give up and become an uber driver until everyone has a waymo.”

“I know it’s not cool or classy to speak like this but i’m not gonna candy coat the future – it is what it is,” he wrote. “Sorry for bad new’s my purist . there will always need a human mind and touch because ai will never suffer from bipolar disorder and autism like me and other creative people.”

It’s unclear whether Diplo, who invested in the AI research startup Aaru earlier this year, is indeed a Suno investor. Suno CEO Mikey Shulman said earlier this month that “some of the best artists, producers, songwriters and people from across the music industry” contributed to the company’s $400 million investment round, though Suno representatives have declined to reveal which artists those were. Suno is currently testing a WMG-backed model.