Shakira thinks it’s going to be “hard” for AI to imitate her

Shakira has shared her thoughts about AI, highlighting the mistakes that the technology still makes when trying to replicate a singer’s voice.

The pop star has reasoned, due to that, that it would be “hard” for AI to imitate her.

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“I was shown how I sound with AI. But I don’t think they got it right yet. I don’t hear myself there,” she told Billboard in a new interview [via MusicNews].

“The letter E, for example, sounds like my voice, but not the other four vowels,” she continued. “I think it’s going to be hard for AI to imitate me. And I have bigger fish to fry right now.

“My biggest concern is figuring out how Milán [her son] can practice American football, soccer and baseball in the same week,” she said, joking.

Shakira. Credit: Mike Coppola/Getty

The use of AI in the creation of art has remained a hot button topic throughout 2023.

The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards also shared his opinion on AI recently, claiming it to be part of “toy town”.

“AI is like anything else. It can either be a tool, or it can be a toy. And most times, all of these things become toys. But it’s like how you use it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nirvana‘s Krist Novoselic discussed in an interview with NME how AI was used to complete “sketches” of old songs.

“I’m excited about the live shows on there, because they used AI. We took the digital audio tapes from the soundboard in Rome, Seattle and Los Angeles, then the AI can separate all the instruments and we got a really good mix out of it,” he said while speaking about the 30th anniversary reissue of Nirvana’s seminal album ‘In Utero’.

Earlier this week Spotify founder Daniel Ek revealed that the company will not be banning music generated by AI on the platform.

Artists that have spoken out against AI include Hozier (who has considered striking in protest), Noel Gallagher (who called the creators of a fake Oasis album “fucking idiots”) and Nick Cave (who described it as “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”).