Peter Gabriel Announces AI Music Video Challenge

Peter Gabriel has been open about his embrace of AI technology in music.

Last month, he called AI - currently in its infancy with programs like ChatGPT, a “powerful new tool” that we should use instead of “just grumble or pretend it doesn't exist.”

The music legend has partnered with Stability AI to announce the DiffuseTogether Challenge.

The general gist is this: participants will submit one animated AI-generated video inspired by and set to the music of Peter Gabriel to the contest currently running on Discord. 

The videos will incorporate Stability AI's technology through Stable Diffusion, its industry-leading open-source suite of imaging models, and applications like DreamStudio (photorealistic imaging), Stability for Blender (3D) and AnimAI (animation).

Peter Gabriel commented via PR Newswire, “These powerful, transformative AI tools are for the first time within reach of all of us. We have the chance to weave new realities together from the threads of our own imagination and creativity.”

He continued, “I've built my world out of sound, and I'm now asking the visual arts community to create its own uncharted audio-visual dreamscapes with a carpet of my music. With your creativity and experiences, along with the transmutational power of Stable Diffusion, we can generate all manner of extraordinary and curious new adventures. Let's use the light of the full moon and get this vessel underway.”

Users can use Gabriel’s music, including smash hits like Sledgehammer and multiple songs from his upcoming album, i/o. Winners will be announced on Friday, 5 May, with Gabriel on the judging panel.

Gabriel’s attitude towards AI technology is the opposite of Drake’s, who took to social media and said, “This is the final straw” after an AI track featuring his and The Weeknd’s vocals appeared on streaming services and went viral.

His label, Universal Music, said in a statement, “We have a moral and commercial responsibility to our artists to work to prevent the unauthorized [sic] use of their music and to stop platforms from ingesting content that violates the rights of artists and other creators.”

“We expect our platform partners will want to prevent their services from being used in ways that harm artists.”

Nick Cave is also against AI platforms like Chat GPT, calling an AI song “bullshit” and branding the tool a “grotesque mockery of what it is to be human.”