SZA Condemns ‘Disgusting’ AI Music After Discovering Her Work in Training Datasets
Poinews.com – American Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter SZA has voiced strong criticism toward AI music and those who advocate for its use, after learning that over 200 of her tracks had been incorporated into AI training. The artist, known for hits such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Luther’ in collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, shared the findings via Instagram Stories, revealing that a search on an AI music database indicated 238 of her songs were part of the training data.
“Checked and music AI has trained off 238 of my songs. I’m certain some unreleased. If you’re a musician and you support this degenerate shit? You’re disgusting and there’s NOTHING YOU COULD EVER SAY TO ME TO MAKE THIS OKAY. I hope u have the life u deserve.”
In a follow-up post, SZA specifically targeted the AI music platform Suno and producer Diplo, accusing them of exploiting Black artists. “Ionno who needs to hear this but diplo has equity in suno and is actively attempting to train it on the best and brightest black minds of writers and producers,” she wrote. “We make up 13% of the American population yet influence the world with our sound and perspective.”
“I AINT HEARD A WHITE AI SONG YET .. why so disproportionate? We have no protection in legislature medical or creative,” she continued. “The easiest to steal from. DO NOT GIVE AWAY YOUR VIBRANIUM !!! DO NOT TRAIN AI WITH YOUR GENIUS. F–k these weird a– vultures.”
Following SZA’s outburst, Suno’s chief product officer defended the AI music generator on LinkedIn. “At Suno, preserving artistry and human creativity is just as important as product innovation itself,” Jack Brody stated. “We know that’s easy to be skeptical about – especially if you haven’t actually immersed yourself in our product. But most of the people building Suno are musicians.”
“Empowering human creativity is why we show up, not just some corporate positioning. We believe companies building AI have a responsibility to invest in safeguards with the same level of ambition and rigor that they bring to building products.”
Brody also outlined Suno’s measures to protect intellectual property, including rules against unauthorized content uploads, enforcement mechanisms, and partnerships with entities like Audible Magic and Musixmatch. “Our philosophy has always been that AI should help people create new music, not replicate someone else’s. That’s why we built our models around what we call ‘Original Creation, By Design,’ training strategies intended to reduce the risk of generating unauthorized reproductions.”
“For example, we do not use artist names as a category of training metadata – meaning we made an intentional choice not to teach models artist names because our goal is to help people create brand new songs, not music that sounds like existing artists.”
This isn’t the first time SZA has spoken out against AI. In March, she told i-D Magazine: “I feel like I’m at war because of AI.” She highlighted the disproportionate impact on Black music, noting: “Why am I hearing AI covers of Olivia Dean, when Olivia Dean just came the fuck out? She can’t even collect the streams. I’m also really offended by the type of Black music that’s coming out of AI. Weird, stereotypical struggle music.”
Last year, she criticized AI users for their reliance on the technology, saying: “Please Google how much energy and pollution it takes to run AI… Please Google the beautiful Black cities like Memphis that are SUFFERING because of Twitter’s new AI system. PLEASE JUST GOOGLE ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM.”
“AI doesn’t give a fuck if you live or die I promise. THERE IS A PRICE FOR CONVENIENCE AND BLACK AND BROWN [COMMUNITIES] WILL PAY THE BRUNT OF IT EVERYTIME,” she added.
