Another day, another way in which artificial intelligence is chipping away at the essence of being human. A month ago the world was introduced to Tilly Norwood, the AI “actress” on the brink of signing with an agency, at least according to the human who designs and operates Tilly. Well, Tilly has a friend now. AI “singer” Xania Monet has an honest-to-dog Apple Music profile that calls Xania “an AI figure presented as a contemporary R&B vocalist in the highly expressive, church-bred, down-to-earth vein of Keyshia Cole, K. Michelle, and Muni Long.” I mean, at least they’re telling us upfront whose human work Xania is stealing from, I guess. But it gets worse: Xania has already nabbed a multimillion-dollar record deal — after a rumored bidding war, sigh. And on top of that, Billboard now says that Xania is the first AI “artist” to debut on their radio charts. We are full on living in the Twilight Zone.
‘She’ already has a record deal: According to Billboard, an AI singer named Xania Monet is “the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart.” So far, Monet has appeared on multiple Billboard charts since first releasing a song in summer 2025, including the Hot Gospel Songs (for her song “Let Go, Let God”) and the Hot R&B Songs chart (for her song “How Was I Supposed to Know”), according to the publication. Now, she’s been signed to a multimillion-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media after what Billboard called “a bidding war.”
Biographical details of an inorganic entity: Monet’s Apple Music artist profile explains that Monet is “an AI figure presented as a contemporary R&B vocalist in the highly expressive, church-bred, down-to-earth vein of Keyshia Cole, K. Michelle, and Muni Long.” Monet was designed by Telisha Nikki Jones, a poet from Mississippi who writes the lyrics Monet is seen performing with help from Suno, “a generative artificial intelligence music creation program,” the bio explains. Monet released a full-length album “Unfolded” in August, which had 24 songs. A seven-track EP, “Pieces Left Behind,” followed in September.
The requisite word salad in defense: A press release from Monet’s representative touted the AI singer’s smooth, soulful sound” and “human-like delivery.” But Romel Murphy, who says he’s Monet’s manager and spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell, insisted that there is no intent to replace human singers and songwriters. “AI doesn’t replace the artist. That’s not our goal at all. It doesn’t diminish the creativity and doesn’t take away from the human experience,” he said. “It’s a new frontier and like anything would change some people are receptive and some people are apprehensive.”
AI is seeping in all over the charts: Billboard recently reported that “in just the past few months, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings. That figure could be higher, as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent,” according to the publication. “Many of these charting projects, whose music spans every genre from gospel to rock to country, also arrive with anonymous or mysterious origins.”
Word salad, part deux: Murphy doesn’t appear to see an issue and likens it all to the music of Michael Jackson and Prince, who died in 2009 and 2016 respectively. “They both have music catalogs that are expanding decades to this day. Youths are still listening to those songs and they’re no longer with us and they’re connected to their music,” Murphy said. “So it is the music because they don’t have the history of the contact or the concert live field, but they still love those songs. Music has to evolve as well. We just have to keep the integrity and be intentional about the realness of it and push the music to the world,” he added.
[From CNN]
I know we’re supposed to be talking about the AI “singer,” but are we 100% certain that alleged manager Romel Murphy isn’t AI as well? Because what the ever loving f–k was that nonsensical collection of words that began by invoking the music of Prince (and that other guy)? What does a late artist’s catalog have to do with people creating AI “artists,” and why are you dragging youths into it Mr. Murphy?! If that whole ramble isn’t the diarrhea of ChatGPT, I don’t know what is. His earlier comment, the oft-cited “AI doesn’t replace the artist,” seems downright eloquent by comparison (it’s not). And I love how these pro-AI folks think they earn points for saying this line, even when it’s plainly obvious the opposite is happening. Xania is on Billboard charts and has a multimillion-dollar record deal; how many human artists have neither? Multimillions.
So here are my humble suggestions: for one, I make the (futile) request of Billboard to disqualify AI “artists” from their charts. And to Xania’s creator Telisha Nikki Jones, how about finding composers and performers of the human variety to collaborate with?
