You're never going to believe this, but another mega-rich music mogul has arrived at the position that the use of generative artificial intelligence in music production is Good, Actually. This time around, the mogul in question is Dr. Dre, and he says that he is, in fact, using AI while making the music that he will presumably never release. He also makes the same instantly tired argument at Two Shell — that backlash against AI is motivated by the same retrograde ideas that once drove backlash against synths and drum machines.
Dre makes his extremely predictable points in a recent New York Times interview about business and innovation, or whatever. Dre did that interview with his business partner Jimmy Iovine, another unspeakably rich music mogul who also thinks that AI is a great development. Dre was late to the interview, arriving when Iovine was right in the middle of a pro-AI spiel. When Iovine caught him up to speed, Dre chipped in to say, "I don’t see it as a threat. I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating." Allow him to elaborate:
I had a discussion with a few people a few days ago. They were against AI, and I’m like, “OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out.” Or synthesizers, right? It’s a new tool for creativity. Some people are afraid of learning new things.
I’m embracing it. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with this.
When asked if he's using AI in his own music, Dre said, "Yes, I’m using it. Again, as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did." Dre also says that other producers are "using it, they just don't want to admit it," which does seem sadly plausible.
Fellow aging music titan Rick Rubin recently went viral for statements about how "vibe coding" is "the punk rock of coding." People love that idea. (Shout out to Drew Daniel of Matmos and the Soft Pink Truth.)
Purged of costly ethico-political baggage & streamlined into pure aesthetic handwaving, "punk rock" = a meaningless honorific exclusively used by old people to hype whatever "edgey" garbage they shill for, up to & including TERF ideas, stock scams, or in this case, AI. Fuck off. https://t.co/ad9HnTmdnO
— DREW DANIEL (@DDDrewDaniel) August 23, 2026
Rubin has apparently written an AI-assisted book about "vibe coding," and I refuse to investigate this further.
For the record, here's the pro-AI bullshit that Jimmy Iovine was saying before Dr. Dre joined the New York Times interview:
I’m very pro-AI in music creation. I don’t see the downside at all. There will be some crappy music. There’s crappy music now.
In the studio, when gifted people have AI, they’re going to make better records.
The AI companies have the worst public relations in the history of the world. I don’t know the history of the world, but let’s just put it this way: They have terrible communication skills. That’s why everybody is all up in arms.
Thankfully, billionaire musicians who haven't made any impactful music in decades are here to save the AI companies' PR issues. I'm sure that'll work. (If you would like to lull yourself into an annoyed stupor, the full Times interview is here.)
