Diplo Says Creatives Need To Use AI Or “Give Up”

Given basically everything we know about him, from his luxury expedition to Antarctica to his friendship with RFK Jr., Diplo profiles as an AI bro. It turns out he is.

A few weeks ago, Diplo discussed AI in the music industry on Daniel Wall's Behind The Wall podcast. A clip from the interview has gone viral today because this morning, days after reuniting with M.I.A. at Coachella, Diplo quote-tweeted it. His tweet sums up his position like so:

if you are a creative you need 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 . 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 ?

Diplo puts it more elegantly in the interview. "You do need the brand more than you need the voice," he says at the start of the clip. "I don't even need a voice anymore. I can get the best voice from AI. I don't need anybody to sing the song anymore." He continues:

You're not gonna win. There's no fighting AI. You have to just work your best to be the best at it right now. You're wasting your time. You're just wasting a year of being like, "Eh," because everybody else is gonna just use it and not give a fuck of what you think.

It's proven every time that technology wins. Like the people's attitudes and people's pushback, it always ages out pretty badly. You have to make it so that you understand the customer and the accessibility is what's always going to be triumphant. You're never gonna be like, 'I'm gonna choose the artistry and the hard work.' You can talk that all you want. Some people will love that. But 99% of people are gonna just want to love the best product, made the quickest, made the cheapest. That's what the American economy is. We want to say we want healthy foods, but no, we want cheap. We want to have things quick. And that's what music is, [it] also runs that same golden hand of the economy.

I've had some voices, when I make some stuff in AI, I'm like, 'Damn, I couldn't even get this take out of the best singer.' I wouldn't have said that to you like three months ago, but the way it's changed in the last three months on the music side, I'm like, "Fuck." I have this young producer that I signed, and I'm like, "Let's just use Udio real quick to make some goth type beats" or whatever. And we made like three in like five minutes. He looks at me and he's like, "Fuck. I'm done. I'm cooked, right?" And I'm like, "I don't know, man. Maybe." And I kind of explain to him, I'm in a position now where I can use these tools really effectively because people already trust me for my taste and what I do. But you, you have to work your ass off to be a good producer.

Diplo also talked about AI on a different podcast, And The Writer Is..., where he discussed his former addiction to the AI-generated video platform Sora, said he's used AI on a lot of music that hasn't been released yet, and touted himself as a very skilled prompter due to his years of experience and well cultivated taste.

Diplo was also adapting to technology recently by trying on M.I.A.'s Ohmni poncho. For what it's worth, the Diplo Foundation is also pro-AI, but it has nothing to do with Wesley Pentz.