• Jason Derulo says he doesn’t see AI music as a threat to artists yet.
• He said lyrics written by the AI-powered bots still lacked “soul.”
• The debate over AI-generated music has been escalating in recent months.

Jason Derulo says he doesn’t see AI music as a threat to artists amid growing tensions around the tech’s potential impact on the music industry.

Speaking at the Gitex tech conference in Dubai, Derulo said he didn’t think the technology was up to scratch despite the hype.

“It’s not that good yet,” he said. “It still has a very long way to go in terms of writing lyrics. I haven’t seen a lyric yet that I was like, oh this is dope.”

The debate over AI-generated music has been escalating in recent months. Some artists, including Elon Musk’s ex-girlfriend Grimes, have embraced the technology, while others have taken issue with AI-powered tools’ eerie ability to mimic the voices of living artists. Artists, including Drake and Ice Cube, have slammed people who use the technology in this way.

Streaming platforms have also been swept up in the debate, with some taking steps to protect artists’ work. Spotify, for example, does not allow its content to be used in the training data for AI systems.

A new YouTube tool that hoped to let creators mimic the voices of famous artists was reportedly delayed after failing to get any music companies to participate, Bloomberg reported.

Derulo, however, said he didn’t necessarily think of the tech as negative, comparing it to using tools like Google Search to help write lyrics.

“As we progress and as technology progresses, we’ll have more and more tools,” he said. “Hopefully, the creativity of the product continues to grow with the technology as opposed to using technology as a crutch.”

He said lyrics written by the AI-powered bots still lacked “soul,” but suggested they may catch up to human creative skills at some point.

“I do think there will be occasions when AI will be able to give us lyrics that have soul, but I just don’t think we’re close to that yet,” he said.