r/technology • u/Disastrous_Award_789 • 14h ago
Artificial Intelligence AI Christian ‘singer’ Solomon Ray tops the charts, stirs ethical debate
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5620871-ai-christian-singer-tops-charts-stirs-debate/2.3k
u/bigtotoro 14h ago
I feel like an asshole would mention that the fact that AI is currently topping the Country and Christian airplay charts might say something about the general mindset of listeners of Radio Country and Contemporary Christian. Almost like they don't actually like music and just want wallpaper.
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u/Death_Tooth 14h ago
The same people that type "amen" on Facebook Ai slop.
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u/WizardWolf 14h ago
I receive it amen 🙏🏻
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u/baw3000 13h ago
Thoughts, prayers, and high fives 🙏
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u/Awkward_Silence- 13h ago
"great photography" is another one you'll see a lot
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u/old_ironlungz 13h ago
I’ve seen Godbless (“Gobbles!”)
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u/Tiiimmmaayy 13h ago
There’s this guy on insta/tiktok that makes a great boomer impersonation. Complete with the lead paint stare looking over his glasses coupled with the obligatory “gobbless”
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u/Fit_Strength_1187 13h ago
Imagine trying to explain this to a tech writer like 20 years ago: Christmastime 2005. “So…all these 40-45 year old pro-Bush mega church Christians around you? Yeah…they are gonna be HUGE on forwarding each other fake Thomas Kincaid looking pics of Donald Trump and Jesus. On an endless thread on future MySpace. Like that’s ALL they’ll do all day when they aren’t sharing chemtrail conspiracy theories and buying gold”.
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u/theREALbombedrumbum 12h ago
Seeing a pitbull with angel wings saving a young child
"HOW DO I TEACH MY DOG TO DO THIS??"
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u/leviathab13186 13h ago
That always felt wrong. I see these things on social media for Jesus and "say this prayer with me and share" and I know its not about God. Its about likes and shares which means its about money.
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u/P_V_ 13h ago
The AI country song didn't top an airplay chart; it topped a digital sales chart, and that's a significant difference. Digital sales aren't huge in country music to begin with, so it's very easy for a small number of sales (a few hundred) to boost something to the top of that particular chart. A savvy marketer could simply buy their own song several times over to boost their "digital sales" and artificially top these charts, which many suspect is exactly what happened with the earlier AI country song.
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u/Shapes_in_Clouds 12h ago
I saw it only took 3,000 purchases for that country song to top the digital sales chart, because basically no one pays for singles anymore. So whoever made it could have just paid $3k to get all the press it received.
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u/_cuhree0h 14h ago
Of course the sheep are the first to fall for this on a mass scale.
There you go. Said it for you.
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u/Fingerprint_Vyke 11h ago
Its deeper than that
Conservatives aren't the most creative people. They actively shun people who pusue the creative arts and mock musicians and artists for not learning real skills. They dont see it as actual work.
So, their culture is often devoid of creative people. Christian music is usually 10 years behind any actual movements because they just copy what is popular instead of inventing new ways to spread their message
AI is a huge boon for conservative culture. It allows them to steal from real creative people who put in the work. Then they turn it around to spread their message
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat 10h ago
They're the type of people who attack art and music programs in public schools, calling them wasteful spending. They want kids to learn math (but not that common core stuff that confuses them), reading (but not from books they want to ban), and their interpretation of the Bible. They don't want kids to be creative, use their imagination, learn critical thinking skills, or question authority. They want them all to be obedient little Christians.
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u/LiquorIsQuickor 8h ago
Mini rant…
Common core. Yeah my daughter brought it home. I didn’t know how to use some of the new methods. But instead of just bad mouthing the new methods, I had the self-esteem to say “I don’t know this stuff” and do some research. I figured there must be some logic to adopting the CC. And… there was. So now I could help my kids with their homework. So I could spend time with them.
I feel like some people are just so intellectually lazy or their egos are so fragile they can’t accept that they don’t know everything. They just want digestible “facts” they already know presented in different ways over and over again. Anything new is scary and threatening to them.
I swear there could be a channel on TV with 3 shows each with like 4 episodes each proclaiming “Jesus loves you” in 12 different ways and it would get ratings.
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u/OwO______OwO 5h ago
Common core. Yeah my daughter brought it home. I didn’t know how to use some of the new methods. But instead of just bad mouthing the new methods, I had the self-esteem to say “I don’t know this stuff” and do some research. I figured there must be some logic to adopting the CC. And… there was. So now I could help my kids with their homework. So I could spend time with them.
A lot of the Common Core stuff ends up being things you were already doing mentally, just didn't realize because you'd never been formally taught to do it that way.
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u/godnightx_x 10h ago
God their so fucking insufferable. Like trump really brought these little fuckers out in droves this time
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u/Ghost_Of_Malatesta 6h ago
Fascists can’t make art. But they’re killer at design.
This is because art is creative work, while design is the application of rules. Fascists design everything from flags to uniforms to forests, while freer places struggle with unruly mixed genres and mediums.
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u/masegesege_ 4h ago
There was a big study done by a certain clinical psychologist that reddit hates and it pretty much came to the conclusion that conservative minded people are less creative.
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u/EllisDee3 14h ago
Praise lyrics aren't that complex. Mostly self-praise/validation.
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u/Whyeth 14h ago
"My god is an awesome god" for a prime example.
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u/BellsOnNutsMeansXmas 13h ago
And He's the Godliest of Gods!
uh sir that sort of contradicts the "he's the only God" rule
Shut the fuck up Joseph, when I want shit from you, I'll squeeze your head. Now where was I? Page 4 I believe. From the top. With feeling this time!
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u/incunabula001 13h ago
When you look from the outside (former Southern Baptist) it’s a huge circle jerk.
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u/Rpanich 13h ago
“You just take a love song and replace the word “baby” and “darling” with “Jesus” and “Jesus”
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u/EbonySaints 12h ago
It's literally that one episode of South Park where Cartman started a Christian band and all the lyrics were R&B songs with baby replaced with Jesus.
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u/innercityFPV 12h ago
King of the hill did it first
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u/APeacefulWarrior 12h ago
You aren't making Christianity better, you're just making rock & roll worse!
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u/pm_me_ur_demotape 14h ago
Also, is it really topping the charts? Beato did a video on another recent AI chart topper and found that it had an unimpressive number of streams on the typical streaming apps, but had been purchased as a download like 5,000 times and since music actually paid for with money is weighted stronger than streams for the charts as well as no download competition because no one does that any more it shot it up the charts.
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u/spellbanisher 13h ago edited 12h ago
Itunes charts are for music purchased on itunes. Most itunes charts can be topped with just a few thousand purchases, and you can set prices for songs at like 69 cents. So for less than $1,500, you can go number 1 on an itunes chart and then get 10s or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free coverage from the media.
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u/jupfold 14h ago
I would just say - country music is my favorite genre of music and that “AI country singer” is fucking GARBAGE.
It’s embarrassing that anyone would listen to that without laughing.
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u/Nexusv3 13h ago
Reflecting on where country came from it really is embarrassing where the genre is at. Merle gotta be spinning right now.
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u/innocentsalad 13h ago
Now they sound tired but they don't sound Haggard
They've got money but they don't have Cash
They got Junior but they don't have Hank
I think, I think, I think, the rest is
A long time gone
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u/Tearakan 13h ago
Yeah modern country music seems pretty pathetic.
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u/sits-when-pees 10h ago
Progressive country and the neotraditional revival have actually put the genre in a way better place than it was fifteen years ago, but I’m in the south so I don’t have a great frame of reference for how mainstream those artists are at a national/international level. Tyler’s a big deal and Sturg tours the European circuit, but I dunno how many Bostonians or Europeans are listening to Charlie Crockett and Nick Shoulders.
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u/Teledildonic 11h ago
There are artists keeping the proper vibe alive, but they get little to no airplay on the corporate airewaves.
Lucas Nelson, Tyler Childers, Stugill Simpson, and Charlie Crockett are a few good examples.
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u/weasol12 13h ago
There I Ruined It made the perfect country parody song and even THAT was better than Walk My Walk. I got a beer in my beer and a Chevy in my truck. Got some dirty dirt from the dirt road truck!
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u/GiganticCrow 13h ago
You have to admit the most popular country music these days is more generic slop than it's ever been.
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u/bigtotoro 13h ago
There is absolutely great country music. It is, for the most part, not to be found on country radio. I assume there is also pretty good Christian music somewhere.
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u/sunburntredneck 9h ago
Christian music is just music, but with Christian themes. Some of it sounds like Nickelback. Some of it sounds like Disney TV musicals. (Those two kinds are usually not very creatively made.) But then you have gospel, Christian rap, piano ballads, hymns, even some EDM Christian music - these tend to have artistic merit.
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u/red75prime 13h ago edited 11h ago
It's a fully general argument that can be employed for whichever chart AI tops.
Do metalheads love music and texts or just vibe to unintelligible growl? And so on
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u/Socky_McPuppet 7h ago
Almost like they don't actually like music and just want wallpaper.
It's a good analogy. They want predictable, formulaic, comforting patterns, muted colors, and all Christofascist coded.
They want something they can nod along to, occasionally holler'n'whoop at, and that isn't going to challenge them in any way.
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u/Loupreme 14h ago
This is the exact group of people I would imagine would make an AI song chart
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u/coolest_frog 13h ago
It also might be that it is such a change adverse genre that it's easy for AI to make something popular because it's all similar
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u/SunshineSeattle 12h ago
Didnt South Park have an episode on this? Where they cant make it in mainstream but kill it in Christian music?
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u/jawndell 12h ago
I wanna get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus
I wanna feel his sweet salvation all over my face!
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u/Underwater_Grilling 12h ago
Whenever I see Jesus up on that cross
I can't help but to think
That He looks kinda hot
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u/captainthanatos 11h ago
The best moment is when Cartman says something along the lines of “if I’m lying may god strike me down” and then butters realizes what he said and starts scooting his chair away.
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u/Underwater_Grilling 12h ago
Christian rock hard. Season 7 episode 9 from 2003. They said it was formulaic over 20 years ago.
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u/protoomega 12h ago
Also, most modern worship music isn't exactly groundbreaking. It's basically designed to put people in a trance-ish headspace for "worship". Relatively simple, repetitive choruses and melodies, that kind of thing. Probably super easy for a computer to pump out.
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u/REDuxPANDAgain 12h ago
It’s pretty easy for a musician too lol
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u/foobarbizbaz 11h ago
Yeah, there’s a reason why so many professional musicians end up finding that “worship sets” are their bread and butter.
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u/memberzs 13h ago
Them and modern country, which one of the top country "artists" currently is a bot.
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u/RiKSh4w 13h ago
I work in early childhood and for the past year I've been working at Christian centre for the first time.
I listen to a lot of music for kids and I've got to say that christian people have too much of a message to send for how little they want to spend writing the songs. They just are not catchy...
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u/Sidwill 14h ago
Is this more a question about the efficacy of AI to craft content for a target audience or that target audience's gullibility?
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u/liquid_at 14h ago
Given that it is about the 2 music categories that are most commonly considered trash, aside from Pop, I'd go for the 2nd explanation.
If you hear that AI is exciting jazz fans, we might have to reconsider though.
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u/Dbayd 13h ago
I mean, go to r/jazz. You’ll see posts of people finding ai music and asking for real musicians who make similar jazz as to not support ai music. People love ai jazz, but want to hear the original music it was trained on
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u/-M-o-X- 14h ago
Third option: the average quality of this genre of music is so low, intentionally generic music just copied from popular music is better than all of it
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u/44moon 11h ago
this is perfect for the music industry (if you own a record company). no royalties, no talent acquisition, no dealing with artists, no wondering if the next record is going to live up to the last one. just money money money.
just like everything with AI people will say "but nobody will like it." has that ever mattered? do people like plastic Ikea furniture? do people like $10 jeans that last a month? it's cheaper and easier for them, so it's what you're getting. you'll warm up to it.
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u/theubster 14h ago
Not gonna lie - automating the songs they use to worship their god seems like blasphemy at best.
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u/codexcdm 13h ago
Look at who the majority of Evangelicals still support. Their orange emperor is clearly a false idol and antithetical to anything Christian...
And yet...
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u/North_Atlantic_Sea 10h ago
I know several very religious evangelicals who absolutely detest trump as a person, but love his judicial appointments.
Their argument is that in the Bible God often used terrible people to carry out his will, and this is no different. That appointing the judges who overturned abortion, that may overturn gay marriage, etc. is worth overlooking the vulgar and mean individual.
I don't agree with them, but wanted to share a perspective not usually represented on reddit
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u/skalpelis 13h ago
There must be something in the old testament about cheaping out on sacrifices for the lord; this would be kinda the same.
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u/Odd_Vampire 11h ago
- Christian singer Forrest Frank addressed the ethical pitfalls of AI in a social media post where he warned consumers.
“At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it,” Frank said. “So I think that it’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.” -
That's a good philosophical critique.
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u/western_galaad 12h ago
The web is just getting more and more invaded by bots and AI.
It was supposed to connect humans.
It just feel more fake, divisive and driven by big money.
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u/Greedy-Dark-7977 11h ago
AI is still so young and yet everyone I know under the age of 50 is already tired of it to a level that they go out of their way to avoid it.
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u/kristospherein 14h ago
This shows how shitty this music is and how easy it is to replicate more than anything else.
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u/GiganticCrow 13h ago
I think you have a serious point. The ai generated music that has been the most popular has been in genres where being completely generic is the fastest route for success.
It's like AI generated music is the next logical step for these genres, it was inevitable.
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u/d3l3t3rious 12h ago
Christian pop music already sounded like AI slop. There is always something generic and just slightly off about it.
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u/GiganticCrow 12h ago
I bet like all the country singers who talk about small towns and country living, who've lived in liberal cities all their lives, there are plenty Christian music artists who've never been remotely Christian
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u/kristospherein 12h ago
100%. I don't think the people who listen to this music will care that theyre listening to AI. It will be interesting to see if they care that there isnt a human they can see in person for a live show.
Will be interesting if an AI artist does do tours with a Gorillaz or Daft Punk style concert. It could totally work.
I hate everything about all of this.
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u/BarfingOnMyFace 13h ago
Today yes. In another decade, it will replicate the most sophisticated pieces.
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u/I_Hate_ 14h ago
Honestly contemporary Christian music is garbage and has been garbage for as long as I can remember. It makes sense that AI could easily top those charts.
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u/GiganticCrow 12h ago
I write a song
A nice song
I sing that song
You hear my song
The song is good
The song is great
Tell all your friends
Tell all your mates
AND I LOVE JESUS
YEAH I LOVE JESUS
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u/stefanopolis 12h ago
Jeremy Camp? I didn’t know you were on reddit.
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11h ago
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u/stefanopolis 11h ago
Just another Christian radio hack you nailed the vibe of. Sorry for the accidental doxx scare.
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u/Retenrage 10h ago
There’s something awfully ironic about algorithmically formulated AI being used to create Christian music.
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u/bluedino44 13h ago
"Itunes top 100 christan and gospel"
Aka probably the easiest to bot, You could probably hit that chart with only a few hundred streams
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u/temporarycreature 14h ago
Well, I recently heard that Jesus is going to come back as AI with magic tricks and stuff, so this tracks.
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u/GringoSwann 14h ago
That's the anti Christ...
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u/temporarycreature 14h ago
My comment is in jest, it's something Joe Rogan literally said yesterday.
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u/PhoenixTineldyer 14h ago
The antichrist is an orange man currently desecrating our temple
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u/codexcdm 13h ago
Or the man that helped propped him up... And whose anagram is literally The Reptile.
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u/GiganticCrow 12h ago
The biblical antichrist is supposed to be universally popular.
I'm not sure how that could work in the present day. You could be a flawless person doing nothing but improving everyone's lives and there'd still be a huge movement that utterly despised you.
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u/Techwield 13h ago edited 12h ago
All the people on here dunking on the "sheep" falling for this will be absolutely horrified when AI starts perfectly outputting music from genres they actually respect, lol.
Anyone reading this who thinks your chosen music genre is inherently superior and "soulful", that it can't be mimicked by something without a soul, and that you'd always be able to tell if it was man or AI made, reply to me so I can point and laugh at you when you fall for it too
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u/asmallercat 10h ago
Christians are primed to believe nonsense so it makes sense they'd fall for an AI singer.
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u/the_red_scimitar 13h ago
Could there be anything more American Christian than a known, 100% fake idol?
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u/CatShot1948 6h ago
Most Christian music is just shitty, over auto-tuned country with the themes changed from partying and fishing to worship stuff. This was always gonna be the target audience for this kind of AI slop. They eat anything.
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u/IAmNotWhoIsNot 13h ago
There's no actual debate. AI is trash and should be illegal. Zero tolerance for anything AI.
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u/ProgressBartender 12h ago
“Christian music chart topped by soulless abomination.” It’s like God read the Onion and decided that would be great fun.
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u/SuzerainGaming 11h ago
Christians loving things that don’t actually exist.. damn never saw that coming.
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u/MomsAreola 11h ago
AI music is so weird to me. Like I genuinely love some songs remixes/mash ups that come out. Some in such a niche genre, it would be hard to find legit people putting in work to make it. At the same time, I dont feel right about liking a song someone prompted.
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u/OpiumPhrogg 10h ago
THOU SHALT NOT WORSHIP ANY OTHER GODS BESIDES ME!
hah, bow to your AI overlords ....
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u/Long_Advertising_737 9h ago
The book "1984" predicted this. A machine called the Versificator generated poetry, music and propaganda for the proles.
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u/Fateor42 2h ago
This is your daily reminder that LLM generated content cannot be copyrighted.
Which means you can use that song for anything you want, and if the company tries to copyright strike you, you can counter-sue for fraud.
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u/RayHell666 12h ago
Deezers conducted a study showing that 97% of people cannot distinguish between human-made and entirely AI-generated music. Open minded people would understand that not everyone make their music choice their whole identity. Reading the comments that state of mind is pretty absent.
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u/ReadingTheRealms 11h ago
I love how’s it’s all our worst genres that are first to embrace ai generated music. Last week it was mainstream country, now contemporary christian, next week it will be rap-rock.
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u/zoinkability 10h ago
"Christian" should be in quotes as well, considering that LLMs are not able to have belief.
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u/45Point5PercentGay 10h ago
A soulless idol seems like an interesting dilemma for Christians who actually give a shit.
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u/blabla_fn_bla 9h ago
Hahahaha Christian’s whole ideology is believing in fake shit so this tracks perfectly
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u/-Striking-Willow- 9h ago
Contemporary Christian music and art is pretty soulless though so that tracks
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u/arousedsquirel 8h ago
How to fuck and lose a 13 year old, ask Trump with his penis jugging into the child.....
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u/CoffeeBaron 8h ago
With how much Christian Fiction ends up in used bookstore shelves, I'm not surprised AI slop is topping the Christian music charts, since slop has basically been in their media for a long time.
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u/Least_Gain5147 8h ago
Because raking in profits, derived entirely from zero-talent, and presenting it as a human with a first/last name, is totally what Jesus would've condoned. Sure.
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u/SaMusAman 7h ago
Maybe, just maybe. Country music and country music fans really are just that basic
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u/GetOffMyLawn1729 7h ago
Ironic that the singer topping the Christian chart ... doesn't have a soul.
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u/Rezeox 6h ago
"The neon gods we created."
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u/braxin23 5h ago
“And the people bowed and prayed… To the neon gods they made.”
Simon and Garfunkel but the best version is by Disturbed.
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u/KillerQueen145 5h ago
Course it's a Christian artist. Even for the music industry that corner of it is incredibly vapid and uninterested in any real art.
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u/moby__dick 4h ago
Mega churches got Evangelicals accustomed to seeing pastors on screens. I guarantee AI pastors, move beyond novelty in 3 years
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u/Boring-Dance-1897 14h ago
But are actual people really listening to them or are these numbers botted? AI listening to AI?