Will hip-hop artists Playboi Carti and Kanye West keep the same popularity after A.I. takes over their souls? Photos courtesy of Wikipedia.
The vast majority of students at San Luis Obispo High School listen to quality music (even Country fans, kind of).
Across a multitude of genres and subgenres, students pop their AirPods in and listen on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple music to help them get through the day. However, as technology has advanced in recent years, the music industry has begun using Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) in music. Whether that’s deep faking an artist’s voice, generating instrumentals, or automatically engineering music.
Expressions decided to interview some of SLO High’s most active listeners.
Expressions: What do you know about A.I. Music?
Junior Evan Aquino: I know that it has become more common with bigger artists and has been used to speed up the process for artists to make songs.
2025 SLOHS graduate Abraham Bermudez: AI music really only came up around early 2022, and normally it hasn’t been very coherent or enjoyable with listening till now due to how good text to speech algorithms have gotten.
Sophomore Zach Hernandez: I just think it is lazy.
Expressions: How do you feel about Playboi Carti and Kanye West using A.I. in their music?
Aquino: I think that it is not great for artists like Carti and Kanye to use A.I. in their music because it is unoriginal and not what their fans are looking for. I think that it is okay to use for inspiration or ideas but it should not replace the artist’s actual ability to make completed songs.
Bermudez: The general use of A.I. to make songs is in itself un creative and in lack of taste. I know Carti utilized it minimally in music, and it isn’t noticeable. Same with the Ye’s “Bully” album, so I don’t see the reason of it being used whatsoever.
Hernandez: I feel Playboi Carti using A.I. is not surprising. It definitely bothers me but his A.I. music is better than the music he’s actually been making lately.
Expressions: If songs by your favorite artists right now, or later on in the future use A.I., would you still listen to them?
Aquino: If my favorite artists were to use ai in their music I would maybe listen to it. It would have to be better than the average song and really impress me for there to be a reason to use A.I. Knowing that a song is A.I. ruins the song quite a bit for me, since it’s not the actual artist who I am listening to.
Bermudez: I would probably try to avoid listening to them. I mean my favorite artists have their place because of the unique sounds they create if it has to do with either production, rapping etc so using A.I. would remove that whole purpose and creativity.
Hernandez: If any of my favorite artists use A.I., I would just be disappointed. I wouldn’t stop listening to the artist my opinion would just change on them.
