Generative AI in music is death of creative connection
Generative AI is becoming more common in music, but many people still believe music should be made to move you.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been trying to enter creative fields for years. Many people now use generative AI to create things like paintings, novels and even entire music albums. But what does this mean for human artists and creativity as a whole?
In recent months, AI-generated songs have appeared on major music charts on platforms such as Spotify and iTunes. IngaRose, an AI-generated character, released the R&B song “Celebrate Me” last March. In April, the song reached the top of the iTunes charts in the U.S., UK, France, Canada and New Zealand.
In a similar example, the AI-generated country band Breaking Rust had two songs, “Walk My Walk” and “Livin’ On Borrowed Time,” appear on Spotify and Billboard charts, according to Forbes.
Students may have heard these songs on social media platforms such as TikTok or YouTube without knowing they were made using AI.
In 2025, CBS News published an article about a study by French streaming platform Deezer. The study found that 97% of participants could not tell the difference between human-made music and AI-generated music. More than half of these participants felt uncomfortable because they could not identify the songs made by AI.
Most college students have used AI at some point in their lives. But many do not realize how often generative AI goes unnoticed, especially when it comes to music and other creative work. The Deezer study showed this clearly.
There is almost no noticeable difference between AI-generated music and music made by humans. If students do not already know that a song was made by AI, they probably will not be able to tell.
According to an article by Artefact, when AI creates music, it examines large amounts of human-made content. It learns patterns in rhythm, harmony, melody and song structure from existing music and then uses those patterns to create new songs.
The same process is used in every form of art. AI learns from existing human work and uses what it has learned to make something new. This makes it very difficult to tell whether something was created by AI. An even bigger concern is that the work often does not have to be labeled as AI-generated or give credit to the thousands of artists whose skills and work were copied.
On Spotify, the credits for Breaking Rust’s song “Livin’ On Borrowed Time” do not show that AI was used to make it. All the credits for lyrics, instruments, production and performance go to Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor. There are no public records or online presence under that name, so it is likely a fake name used by the person who created Breaking Rust’s songs.
The way AI creates music, along with cases like the one involving Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, raises ethical questions. Is it fair for generative AI to copy, or even steal, the work of real artists and then change it to make new songs?
People disagree about whether AI-generated songs break copyright law. Some major music companies have filed lawsuits accusing generative AI of copyright infringement, and courts across the U.S. are still dealing with these cases, according to an article from Gibson Law Partners LLC. An article from Crain’s Chicago Business describes one ongoing lawsuit against Google. A group of independent musicians sued the company, accusing it of copying their music from YouTube.
For now, many people still feel uneasy about how difficult it is to tell human-made music from AI-generated music. AI is designed to keep improving, and it will become even harder to tell the difference as the technology learns and develops. As AI advances, it is more important than ever for listeners to know whether the artists and music they hear are human-made or created by AI.
If AI-generated songs can so easily go unnoticed, does a student's opinion change when they find out a song was made using AI?
For some students, how a song was made may be just a small detail. They already have so many demands on their time in college that they may not want to spend time worrying about whether music is human-made or AI-generated.
But for others, myself included, it matters more than anything.
If people can simply ask an AI music generator to create lyrics and background music, what reason do real musicians have to spend countless hours writing songs and producing music when there is a much easier option?
For me, the passion and love that artists put into their music are what make it worth listening to. When I play an AI-generated song and know that creating it took no effort from a human artist, I feel no emotional connection to it. Many others feel the same way. But when I can hear the humanity and passion in the lyrics and feel it beneath the beat, music can change how I feel and see the world.
Art helps people connect with one another. We use art to express our feelings, dreams, wishes and experiences. When someone listens to a song or reads a book and feels less alone, it is often because the work shows that someone else has felt or experienced something similar.
People cannot truly connect with a robot, and a robot cannot truly connect with a person. Robots do not have feelings, desires or personal experiences. They can only copy how these things appear.
When we allow AI to take over art and deny recognition to the artists who deserve it, humanity loses something important. Using AI to create music or any other kind of art means losing creativity and human connection at their core.