ACCEPT's WOLF HOFFMANN: 'I Hope That Live Music Will Never Be Replaced' By Artificial Intelligence

In a new interview with Framus & Warwick, ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann spoke about the lyrical inspiration for the band's latest album, "Humanoid". He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's called 'Humanoid', so that tells you a little bit of something. We were inspired by what's going on in the world with A.I. [artificial intelligence], robots, and basically it's a reoccurring theme. We had it in a different lyrics too. It's man versus machine — how much of a robot or a machine is controlling your life, and how will it go from here? Now with A.I. — I mean, it's getting scary right now, and so it's just an interesting theme to play around with. That doesn't mean this is a concept album or anything. We still have different songs about different subjects. This is just the title track that we thought makes the best album cover and the best title for an album. But we never really do concept albums where every song is about the same or related theme."

He continued: "Sometimes it's a bit scary when you check it out nowadays, what computers can do. The good thing is that is still based on human — I mean, it's not completely invented by machines. Machines just take what humans created and then make a conglomeration out of it, they make their own version of what already was created by other people. But still, man, it's scary what these machines can do. And I hope that live music — that will never be replaced, but it might be. Maybe 50 years from now, 20 years from now, 10 years from now, people are gonna go see concerts just created by machines. I don't know. Nobody knows. I hope not."

Hoffmann previously addressed the positive side of A.I., particularly as it relates to the potential to drive innovation, streamline processes, enhance productivity and improve decision-making across industries, during an April 2024 press conference in Paris, France to promote "Humanoid". He said at the time: "I wouldn't go out and say it's all good or it's all bad. It's always a mix of everything. Modern technology in general, all the digital aspects of our daily life, there's some amazing aspects of it. I'm traveling a lot, and no matter where I go, I have my little iPhone with me and it has GPS on it. And I can just type in — I don't know; 'Indian restaurant' — and I'm gonna find one two blocks down the street. I would never find that without it. I wouldn't even know where to go. I'm at the airport. I can communicate on the plane with other people. All this is beautiful, I think. Of course there's a negative side of everything. And artificial intelligence sounds a little scary right now, but I'm quite hopeful that we will find a way to deal with it that enables us to take advantage of it without having it all just be negative. I mean, there's always two sides to everything, I believe."

He continued: "The thought of artificial intelligence creating art, that is something that concerns me. I wouldn't say I'm afraid of it, but at the same time, being an artist, I'm thinking, like, 'Is it gonna take all our jobs away one day?' I'm quite hopeful it won't, because I still think only humans can really express emotions.

"I hope that artificial intelligence is not gonna advance that much more that it can actually replace human thoughts and emotions. But am I a hundred percent sure? No," he added. "I never thought it would be that good already, but it's amazing what it can do already. There's gonna be visual art being created, music's gonna be created by it. Of course there's the aspect of it that it's basically you're ripping off existing songs and existing artwork to create the new stuff. When they create 'new' NIRVANA songs, they look at all the old songs and sort of use it as a reference. Will it ever be able to create original 'original' stuff? Maybe. I don't know. I hope not. But can I help it? No. Can I stop time? No. Technology marches on, whether we want it to or not. So it's an interesting time that we live in, I believe. And we yet have to find a way to deal with it. And I think anytime, in history, that there's new technology introduced, whether it's just something like the automobile, people were scared of it. Initially, they thought, like, it's gonna be harmful to people to travel at that speed, you know, because they were just used to horses and buggies. And so the same is true with all this… Anytime something new comes along, people are always like, 'Oh, God. It's gonna destroy everything.' But I don't think it will destroy everything. We have to just catch up and deal with it."

In March 2024, Wolf told Appetite For Distortion, that he tried using A.I. for lyrical ideas. "And it's scary good, to be honest," he admitted. "You can just say, 'Hey, write me a song lyric' or something, [and] it spits out some pretty amazing stuff. But, of course, you have to say, 'Is this really what I wanted to say? And is it me? Well, then how would I really say it?' So you still have to tweak it and stuff. And we ended up never using any of it, but for songwriting and demoing stuff, I was quite intrigued; I found it intriguing. It gives you a bunch of ideas that you hadn't thought about. And, of course, I've seen some images that were done with A.I. that I thought, 'Whoa.' A designer or a human would have to spend a lot of hours creating that thing, but it spits it out like that."

He continued: "The shadow and downside of this is, of course, that people might lose their jobs over it. And the downside is also that it's not really, truly original. A.I. doesn't really think of this stuff. It just looks at all the other stuff that was created by people and turns it into a different, new version. It uses, in the case of music, for instance, existing songs and creates a new version kind of like it, but it doesn't do it out of the blue sky; it looks at your stuff that somebody created. And there's all kinds of legal issues that come up. So I'm a little concerned about all that, yeah."

Asked if he and the rest of ACCEPT would consider using A.I. in the future to make a music video, Wolf said: "Actually, we are making one right now… It's interesting. I think it's fantastic just to see it. Of course, we thought, even the first video [for ACCEPT's upcoming album, 'Humanoid'] we made, [for the] 'Humanoid' [title track], has got, in the background — we're performing in front of a gigantic video wall, and the artwork that runs in the background, that was all created by A.I., just because here we are. That's what we're talking about on this album, 'Humanoid', so it seemed to be just a fitting tool to use."

Circling back to the idea that artificial intelligence poses some risks to humanity, Wolf said: "We still haven't quite figured out how this is gonna turn out, how this is gonna pan out in the future. How much of it is good, how much of it is bad. We're still at the infancy."

He added:  "This digital revolution, as they call it, I think it's bigger than the industrial revolution was, and I think it has more far-reaching consequences on society than anything… One thing is for certain: we can't stop it. It's gonna happen whether we want it to or not. It's out, and it's gonna get used. We just have to see how to deal with it. That's what we haven't figured out yet, 'cause technology is so fast. We can't keep up with how society deals with it."

ACCEPT will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025-2026. To mark this mammoth milestone, ACCEPT will ring in the band's golden birthday with a very unique anniversary tour at the end of 2025. An anniversary album will be released early 2026.

Over the past five decades, ACCEPT has sold millions of albums and inspired countless musicians. Their energetic live performances and iconic albums such as "Balls To The Wall", "Restless And Wild" and "Metal Heart" have left a lasting mark on the heavy metal genre. Hoffmann's guitar style and musical vision have made the band one of the most respected on the heavy metal scene.

After a hiatus in the band's career, Wolf was introduced to New Jersey singer Mark Tornillo in 2009. The chemistry and fit between them was so remarkable, ACCEPT reformed and almost immediately rose to global success with chart-topping albums. ACCEPT continues to be celebrated for each of their new records with Mark, who is now the longest-reigning frontman of ACCEPT, placing the Hoffmann-Tornillo partnership firmly in the Metal Hall Of Fame.

For decades, ACCEPT has been recognized as a guarantee of high quality and each of their albums has reached the top of the charts, delivering energy, melodies, killer riffs and an impressively powerful stage presence for 50 years.

ACCEPT and KK'S PRIEST recently joined forces for a summer/fall 2024 North American tour. The run began on August 31 in Los Angeles, California, visiting a slew of major cities in the USA and Canada — such as Toronto, Montreal, New York and Nashville — before coming to an end in San Francisco, California on October 7.

Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for Udo Dirkschneider, who was the band's original lead singer. Mark can be heard on ACCEPT's last six studio albums, "Blood Of The Nations" (2010),"Stalingrad" (2012),"Blind Rage" (2014),"The Rise Of Chaos" (2017),2021's "Too Mean To Die" and 2024's "Humanoid".