Meet Cubicle Riot, the AI-generated hair metal band that looks like it just arrived from 1984

The dangers of artificial intelligence have been trumpeted loud and clear, with stark warnings of job losses due to AI automation, increased social surveillance and – ultimately – mind-aware AI. itself which will bring about the end of humanity as we know it.

When it comes to music, artists have been quick to warn of the dangers to their livelihoods, as companies explore the possibility of training AI models to replace real musicians with musicians to whom they do not have to pay royalties.

“Some platforms and developers are using AI to sabotage creativity and undermine artists, songwriters, musicians and rights holders,” reads an open letter signed last month by Robert Smith of The Cure, REM, Peter Frampton and many others. “When used irresponsibly, AI poses enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.

If you’re looking for an example of the kind of thing they’re talking about, look no further than Dip my N*ts in the boss’s cup of coffee, an AI-generated single produced by Cubicle Riot, an AI-generated band. It’s a lively slice of Sunset Strip glamor that could have come out in 1984 – think Ratt’s Steven Pearcy with Poison – and it comes from YouTuber Duck Fuss, who claims to be a purveyor of “100% serious AI tracks” .

Dip my N*ts in the boss’s cup of coffee and its follow-up, I need to let my pig breathe, clearly are not 100% serious, and it is of course possible that they are not generated by AI at all, but by real musicians pretending to be AI, which, given the state of the Internet in 2024, is almost as likely.

But, taken at face value – with AI-generated music today as bad as it will ever be – it’s only a matter of time before AI is capable of producing music virtually indistinguishable from Faster Pussycat or Bullet Boys. And that should concern us all.