MYLES KENNEDY: 'I Absolutely Refuse To Use A.I. As A 'Writing Tool''

During an appearance on the September 10 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", ALTER BRIDGE frontman Myles Kennedy once again weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. Myles said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I will absolutely refuse to use it as a, quote-unquote, writing tool. That, to me, is... So wait, you're gonna go to something that goes through the entire Internet and takes other people's work, and then somehow that's going to be something you're gonna feed off of as your… A.I.'s now your collaborator?

"I've been writing for the last 10 weeks just because I've had some downtime, and there's nothing I love more than writing — period. Nothing," he continued. "So why am I gonna deny myself the joy of the great scavenger hunt? That's the way I look at it. You're trying to problem solve and find parts and navigate through all of this stuff, and then when you find it, it's like finding gold. There's nothing better, as far as just the satisfaction you get. So why would I cheat myself by using A.I. to cut to the a song that's created in an afternoon? I'm kind of old school, I guess. But then there are other people who are gonna say, 'You know what? I use A.I., and it helps me write, and I'm more prolific because of it.' And I'm, like, 'Okay, well, if that works for you, good on you.' But I'm not joining in on that one."

Asked if writing music is really his favorite thing to do in terms of being a musician, versus performing or recording, Myles said: "It's not even close for me. I've had a really great career because I can... I guess I'm known as a singer and whatnot, but ultimately I'm a songwriter, and I think that's what's helped me in all of the projects I'm in, is having that thing, whatever that is, to continue to create new songs. And the way I do it — you can ask [my wife] Selena — it's a little crazy. It's very obsessive. When I open up that portal, I don't step out for a long time. And I'm convinced it's probably not healthy for me, 'cause I don't sleep real well and I'm always kind of on call for when the next idea's gonna pop into my head. And a lot of times it happens when you're in kind of that strange sleep state. But I don't know. That's all I've known for — jeez — 30-plus years. That's just kind of what I do, and I love it. The process is so fascinating to me, and when you find something that's finally good, and in some cases for me that never happens for months, and I'm still trying to find something good, frankly. But, look, it's an incredible dance, and it's an incredible joy that I would be lost without."

Last January, Myles told The Cody Tucker Show about the use of A.I. during the songwriting process: "It's a bummer. I don't like it. The fact that we just had a number one country song that was all A.I. generated, that's a head scratcher for me. And I'm not sure where it goes.

"It's interesting 'cause I feel like there's also this movement of anything related to the arts of… There's a group of people who wanna support stuff that they know it's made by humans," he continued. "So maybe that'll be a thing where it won't be cool if people find out, that you're leaning heavily on A.I. for everything. But we'll see how it plays out. It's gonna be interesting… At the end of the day, all that it's doing is skimming across the Internet to find this content. So I always tell myself, well, technically a human is involved because it's all based on human work. But, yeah, I don't know. There's so many aspects to it I don't like. I don't like these A.I. generated little videos where people can take — they could take you or they take me and make us say something we didn't actually say. That's kind of becoming a problem where people are being kind of tricked into believing that I'm reaching out to people and I'm not. It's crazy. It's a crazy world."

Kennedy added: "It's why I don't really go and use a lot of the social media anymore because I just find myself scrolling and I'd be, like, how much of this is actually real? I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore. So I'm, like, well, I'm out. I'm good.

"Really, it's just a matter, I think, of how we're all gonna use it," Myles explained. "The question for us as humans is, like, okay, are you going to utilize A.I. to… Like, say you're a student. I'm just gonna use A.I. to write my term paper. And you're not doing yourself any good, because what's gonna happen is that… The human brain, it's like a muscle, and if you don't use it, it will atrophy, it'll turn to mush. So the idea of engaging and working on something, and also just the feeling of accomplishment. I love that. I love doing something and then just that feeling you get when you're done. If we wanna shortchange ourselves, then, I guess, have at it. But I don't wanna shortchange myself."

Back in October 2023, Myles told THE DARKNESS frontman Justin Hawkins about the use of A.I. in music: "All that stuff really concerns me genuinely, especially as a songwriter. I feel, like, in five years, we're gonna get to a point where it's kind of like it is now in the studio realm, where when you listen to a vocal, you're, like, 'Well, how much of that vocal was doctored with pitch correction? How much of that was actually the singer able to hit the notes?' I'm afraid that, as time goes on with A.I., 'How much of that song was actually written by that artist versus A.I.?' And that really concerns me, because how does that work? I don't know. I don't. I think that sucks."

ALTER BRIDGE's self-titled eighth studio album arrived in January 2026 via Napalm Records.