--- title: "Nick Cave Absolutely Furious Over AI That Wrote a Song in His Style" description: "A fan who used OpenAI's ChatGPT to pen a song mimicking the style of Nick Cave was in for a surprise when the man himself responded in anger." date: "2023-01-17" modified: "2023-01-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nick-cave-chatgpt-song" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "chatgpt" - "nick cave" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Nick Cave Absolutely Furious Over AI That Wrote a Song in His Style ![A fan who used OpenAI's ChatGPT to pen a song mimicking the style of Nick Cave was in for a surprise when the man himself responded in anger.]() *\Image: Picture Alliance via Getty / Futurism\* ## Caved In A fan used a popular new artificial intelligence tool to generate a song in the style of Nick Cave — but when he sent it to the venerated songwriter, the response he got was as eloquent as it was enraged. "I asked Chat GPT to write a song in the style of Nick Cave and this is what it produced," a fan named Mark from New Zealand wrote to Cave, per a [post on the artist's blog](). "What do you think?" Cave admitted that it wasn't the first time a fan had sent him computer-generated lyrics since the launch of OpenAI's text generator last November, but so far, he hasn't been impressed with the results. "I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI," Cave continued with aplomb, "that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster." Algorithms like ChatGPT, Cave continued, "can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as \[they move\] us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction." "Who can possibly say which?" the artist wrote. "Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark." "The apocalypse is well on its way," he continued. "This song sucks." ## Human Nature Cave argued that songs like the ones he writes are born of suffering — a necessary aspect to create art in his style. "As far as I know, algorithms don’t feel," he wrote. "Data doesn’t suffer. ChatGPT has no inner being, it has been nowhere, it has endured nothing." "Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite," the singer wrote. "It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past." Cave acknowledged that although it may seem like he's taking "all this a little too personally," he can't help but take affront to what he considers an algorithmic mockery of his work, which necessarily requires him to eviscerate a part of himself to put words to paper. That said, the artist did point to one line the AI came up with when mimicking him — '*I’ve got the fire of hell in my eyes’* — which he says is "kind of true." "I have got the fire of hell in my eyes," he wrote, "and it’s ChatGPT." **More on the accursed AI:** [*Viral AI-Written Article Busted as Plagiarized*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()