Boy George Claims Using AI Has 'Helped Me As A Lyricist'

Boy George

In an age when the usage of AI is an undeniably divisive topic, pop veteran Boy George has admitted that using the tool has been a massive help to his career.

Speaking to the Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast earlier this month, George leaned into his love of the technology, claiming that he’s “written like, five albums already with AI.”

“AI is brilliant; nothing to fear,” he added. “I say to everyone, ‘if you get replaced by a robot, you weren’t trying hard enough.’

“Obviously, I care about people losing their jobs, yes, of course the atmosphere is going to shift, but there’s so many great things.”

As he continued, George singled out his newest song, I Am Iran, as an example of how AI has helped him write, noting that it allowed him to pen lyrics in Persian.

“Obviously I don’t sing in Persian, I don’t know anyone who does,” he explained. “I don’t write as a Persian because obviously I’m not, so I write in a way that’s very British and it translates so interestingly into Persian.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, George also noted how he’s defended his love of AI to others, noting he’s comfortable with how it grants him a level of artistic freedom.

“I have fantastic conversations with ChatGPT, and I’ll say, ‘Oh that [lyric is] crap, that’s not what I would say,’” he explained. “You can train it. And my manager last night was saying, ‘You know you’re talking to someone in China.’ I was like, ‘I couldn’t care less.’

“An artist like me, they try to force you to work in an old-fashioned way,” he added. “I’m ahead of them.”

AI’s place in the world of music is an undeniably contentious topic, with many musicians speaking out against the technology, while streaming platforms have come out with safeguards and protections to alert users to whether AI has been utilised in the creation of what they’re listening to.

Late last year, Harvey Mason Jr. – the boss of The Recording Academy and the Grammys – admitted that dealing with the technology is the “toughest part” of his job, and that he has witnessed myriad artists utilise AI in their work.

“It runs the gamut of people texting lyrics or ideas or how they feel when they wake up and generating an entire track, lyrics and melody from it,” he explained.

“I know one person who writes on acoustic guitar and whistles the melodies and puts that into one of the models, and the model spits out songs. I know another person who’s a poet and they put that into the model, and it spits out a fully produced demo. It’s all over the map.”