--- title: "King Gizzard Responds to Being Impersonated by AI on Spotify" description: "King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard frontman Stu Mackenzie has excoriated Spotify after finding out AI was used to impersonate the band's music." date: "2025-12-10" modified: "2025-12-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/king-gizzard-responds-impersonated-ai-spotify" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" --- # King Gizzard Responds to Being Impersonated by AI on Spotify ![King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard frontman Stu Mackenzie has excoriated Spotify after finding out AI was used to impersonate the band's music.]() *Mariano Regidor/Redferns* Acclaimed Australian prog rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard [made headlines]() earlier this year when it quit Spotify, protesting the platform's CEO, Daniel Ek, who heavily invested in an AI weapons company. The band was one of several music acts to [pull their music from Spotify]() over ethical concerns. Many of them have taken issue with artists earning very little money per stream on the platform, or the company [donating a sizable sum]() to president Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony. Next, something extremely dark happened: an impostor created a band on Spotify with the extremely similar band name of "King Lizard Wizard" and used AI to generate songs with the same titles as actual King Gizzard songs that ripped off their entire lyrics and sound, accumulating tens of thousands of streams while remaining on the streaming service for weeks without detection. Outspoken King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard frontman Stu Mackenzie has now excoriated the platform after finding out about the ruse. "\[I'm\] trying to see the irony in this situation," he said in a statement [quoted by *The Music*](). "But seriously wtf we are truly doomed." Spotify has since pulled down the offending material, with a spokesperson telling *Futurism* in a statement that it "strictly prohibits any form of artist impersonation." "The content in question was removed for violating our platform policies, and no royalties were paid out for any streams generated," the spokesperson added. But the company's reactive cat-and-mouse game isn't exactly assuring artists, given Mackenzie's reaction. The incident highlights how Spotify is seriously struggling to keep AI slop at bay on its platform. While the company [announced new policies]() to protect artists against "spam, impersonation, and deception" in September, we continue to see offending AI impersonations landing in users' Release Radar and [Discover Weekly playlists](), which the company prominently recommends to them. Worse yet, as [*Platfomer* reported last month](), a *separate* King Gizzard impersonator had previously attempted to cash in on the band's royalties using AI — meaning that if there was one band that Spotify should have been manually screening for impostors, it should have been King Gizzard. In short, Spotify has a major PR headache to clean up as it reels from an onslaught of AI slop. And a [growing number of artists](), including King Gizzard, have finally had enough and are looking for greener pastures. Who could blame them? **More on the incident:** [*King Gizzard Pulled Their Music From Spotify in Protest, and Now Spotify Is Hosting AI Knockoffs of Their Songs*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()