ACCEPT's WOLF HOFFMANN: 'The Thought Of Artificial Intelligence Creating Art, That Is Something That Concerns Me'

During a press conference in Paris, France to promote ACCEPT's upcoming album "Humanoid", guitarist Wolf Hoffmann addressed the positive side of A.I. (artificial intelligence),particularly as it relates to the potential to drive innovation, streamline processes, enhance productivity and improve decision-making across industries. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET; video by Loud TV): "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."

Last month, 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 gonna be released — I don't know — in about a month or so. But you'll see it, and 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."

Due on April 26 via Napalm Records, "Humanoid" was once again produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by critically acclaimed heavy metal producer Andy Sneap.

Fans can immerse themselves in the upcoming album on an interactive web site, where they can reprogram the robot that is featured on the album cover, and discover different parts of the album in the process. Pre-save "Humanoid" now to gain access to the web site here.

ACCEPT recently announced a massive European headline tour, with more than 20 shows across the continent for autumn 2024. This summer, ACCEPT will also return to some of the world’s most important rock and metal festivals, like Wacken Open Air, Hellfest and more, following their South American spring tour.

In February 2022, it was announced that ACCEPT had inked a worldwide deal with Napalm Records.

ACCEPT's latest album, "Too Mean To Die", came out in January 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was the group's first without bassist Peter Baltes, who exited ACCEPT in November 2018. He has since been replaced by Martin Motnik. ACCEPT's lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, the aforementioned Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during 2019's "Symphonic Terror" tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.

"Too Mean To Die" was recorded in Nashville with Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, MEGADETH),who has been responsible for the studio sound of ACCEPT since 2010.

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