CRADLE OF FILTH's DANI FILTH Blasts Artificial Intelligence In Music: 'I Think A.I. Is S***' And 'A Danger'

CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth has weighed in on a debate about people using artificial intelligence (A.I.) to create music. Asked by Spain's Metal Journal if he thinks this new technology is useful or if it's dangerous, Dani said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's dangerous. I have a friend who is a computer programmer. He writes code for computer games and all kinds of weird and wonderful things, and last January I went for a meal at his house and he showed me something then that scared the shit outta me, which was a program that was very new at the time where you could literally just type in what kind of music you wanted, what the lyrics should be about, how you want the video to look, what genre it should be — you put all these things in and five minutes later, you had a song. The trouble is it's soulless, because essentially it's just taking bits of information — millions — from around the web and binds them very quickly. And it learns. I know artists that are A.I. creators, and the longer they do it, the better it becomes. But the trouble is it's not just affecting… I mean, you get a painter, for example, or a band that spends a year writing an album, recording it, putting all the visuals together, releasing it. These things can do it almost instantaneously. So not only is it taking away from the entertainment industry, whether it's music, art, theater, cinema, but as soon as it becomes attached to a physical robot, something that can physically do the job that his mind creates, then it's gonna affect every walk of life. I mean, it's gonna have benefits, yeah. Everything has benefits. There'll be disabled people that will benefit from the use of A.I. There'll be historians and things that just do work for you that make it easy. But that's not the point. The point is it's soulless. And it's gonna make the human race not only lazy… I mean, look at the way people are with music nowadays, with just having access to everything. There's no soul searching, there's no going to a record store and finding an album… There was something very spiritual about spending the time drifting from shop to shop looking [for an album you really wanted]. Now you just press a button. And I think you lose the capacity to enjoy things as much… I do think that discovering bands and growing with bands and having them shape your parts of your life is important too."

He added: "So no, I think A.I. is shit. I think it is a danger. And I'm not talking about 'Terminator' robots and Skynet, although that could be a problem eventually, but I just think, for people's spiritual growth, for the replacement of hard work of artists in whatever they do, whether it's music, radio, TV, film, anything, I think it's a bit of a problem."

Last month, CRADLE OF FILTH released a new single, "Malignant Perfection". The track is taken from the band's upcoming album, which is tentatively due next spring via Napalm Records.

Regarding how he thinks fans will react to the new CRADLE OF FILTH material, DaniJorge Botas of Portugal's Metal Global: "I think they're gonna love it. It's just part of the evolution of CRADLE. I mean, people ask me to describe it and it's very hard to describe it. I'm not gonna say, 'You know what? This is our 'Cold Lake'," referencing CELTIC FROST's much-maligned 1988 album. "It's just the next evolutionary step for CRADLE. It's got everything. There's a lot of things that hark back atmospherically and indeed musically in places to early CRADLE stuff. But then there's a lot of very modern CRADLE. It's got everything."

Last year, CRADLE OF FILTH released its first live album in over 20 years, "Trouble And Their Double Lives", via Napalm Records. The LP was recorded between 2014 and 2019 at different performances in the USA, Europe, Australia and beyond during the band's "Cryptoriana" world tour and dates following. Produced, mixed and mastered by Scott Atkins at Grindstone Studios, with recording captured by Danny B, the effort not only featured a slew of fan favorites encompassing the band's discography but also two bonus tracks and two entirely brand new songs, "She Is A Fire" and "Demon Prince Regent".

Dani Filth press photo courtesy of Napalm Records