BRIAN MAY Says He Has 'Changed' His Mind About A.I., Is 'Open' To Idea Of ABBA-Style QUEEN Avatar Show

In a new interview with Absolute Radio's Leona Graham, QUEEN guitarist Brian May spoke about the development of advanced artificial intelligence (A.I.) systems and warned that the technology is improving so quickly there is a risk humans will lose control. Asked what his personal views on A.I. are, May said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've changed, really. In the beginning, I thought, 'Well, this is just like the Industrial Revolution, and it's pointless to even think about it 'cause it's gonna come, and we can't do anything about it.' I now feel differently. I feel like we have to resist, and we have to limit its scope. We have to control it very, very seriously and very quickly."

Referencing the fact that the U.K. government has in the past championed data centers as a vehicle for economic growth and a way to attract digital infrastructure projects to specific areas, while others have cited concerns over power and water usage, Brian continued: "I hate the business of these data centers coming and destroying our countryside. This is a big threat, in my opinion, and it will only get bigger and bigger and bigger. The more you give, the more they'll take, and they destroy communities. They destroy the environment. We cannot have this happening in our country. It's already been destroying communities in America. So my message to Andy Burnham [prime minister of the United Kingdom] is please, this is your job now. You have to put a moratorium on these data centers right now before it's too late."

Elaborating on other primary risks of A.I., including the loss of human control over autonomous software agents, spreading large-scale misinformation and enabling dangerous cyberattacks, Brian said: "A.I. has a lot more issues than that, but, to me, there are inherent dangers in creating an intelligence which is able to possibly eventually control us. It's a very real threat.

"The funny thing is they don't think, these A.I. machines," May continued. "It looks like they're thinking, but they're not really thinking — they are copying, they are stealing from everything. And they can give a very good impression of imitating a human being. But they are not a human being. Unfortunately, they will have a lot of power, though, because they will be able to — well, reverse the control, and it's already happening. They're already breaking out. So we've got to think very seriously, in my opinion.

"It's hard to eliminate it from your life 'cause it's there already, as it's snuck in in various ways," Brian added. "Like if you're Googling something, you're gonna get an A.I. overview, even if you didn't ask for it. So it's very hard to step away from it completely."

Asked if he and his surviving QUEEN bandmates would ever consider staging something like an ABBA-style digital avatar show, Brian said: "Well, I know what you mean. Yeah, like the 'ABBA Voyage' thing. It's not really a hologram, but it's an immersive experience, right? Yes, we looked at it very seriously, particularly after I saw the [Las Vegas] Sphere and what THE EAGLES did with the Sphere, which I thought was amazing. And I spent a lot of time planning out what I thought could be a QUEEN show. I've kind of backed off now because you can't do it without massive use of A.I., with all the consequences of that. Now, in some ways, I don't wanna be stealing the work of other people. If you're stealing your own work, I'm not quite sure where I stand on it, 'cause you would be stealing from the QUEEN oeuvre, you know, which maybe is okay because that's ours. But at the same time, you're adding to the stresses that A.I. is putting on the world. So, I don't know. I'm not so keen as I was. I think it would be great to have a permanent place where people could go and feel like they're seeing us play live in our peak, maybe all over the world, maybe at all points in time. The doors are open, but I don't know if we're gonna walk through."

May previously spoke to Guitar Player magazine in September 2023 about his thoughts on artificial intelligence and how it could influence music.

"My major concern with it now is in the artistic area," he said at the time. "I think by this time next year the landscape will be completely different. We won't know which way is up. We won't know what’s been created by A.I. and what's been created by humans."

May worried that "everything is going to get very blurred and very confusing."

"I think we might look back on 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the music scene. I really think it could be that serious, and that doesn't fill me with joy. It makes me feel apprehensive, and I'm preparing to feel sad about this," he said.

In February 2025, May voiced his concern about the use of artificial intelligence in the music industry, following the U.K. government's announcement that they would be ushering in an "opt-out" scheme for those who do not wish to have A.I. models trained to use their likeness. The proposal would have rendered all previous copyright laws obsolete for A.I., leaving tech companies free to train on anything unless an artist has made a point of "opting out". Speaking after making the decision to back the Daily Mail's campaign against the use of A.I., May said: "This theft has already been performed and is unstoppable, like so many incursions that the monstrously arrogant billionaire owners of A.I. and social media are making into our lives. The future is already forever changed."

He continued: "I applaud this campaign to make the public aware of what is being lost. I hope it succeeds in putting a brake on, because if not, nobody will be able to afford to make music from here on in."