Grimes Talks Being An ‘AI Spy’, Reveals Why She Exited Record Contract

etcanada.com:

Grimes’ new obsession is artificial intelligence. The Canadian singer/performance artist appears in the latest episode of the “Forbidden Fruit with Julia Fox and Niki Takesh” podcast, where she reveals she’s currently on a “data collecting and spy mission” in the Bay Area to amass information about the latest advances in AI. “I think you can become adept at using [AI], to me, it seems the more skilled you are and the more you hone your skill with these tools the better you are,” she said. READ MORE: Grimes Unveils AI Software To Let Fans Replicate Her Voice, Offers 50/50 Royalties Split “I think the engineers that create the tools that we use are often very under-appreciated — all music right now is pretty much a dialogue between the engineers and the artists — we have just been given a plethora of tools that are very unprecedented,” Grimes explained. “Over the last 15 years of music, we’ve seen a lot more regular people, not just people who’ve been christened by the labels — you go on TikTok and you see all these kids making stuff in their bedrooms, this is the result of engineering and technology, and this has been a thing that is like really beautiful for our culture.” READ MORE: Grimes Invites People To ‘Use My Voice’ For AI-Generated Songs, Says She’ll Split 50% Of Royalties Apparently, those artists doing their own things on their own terms inspired Grimes to take a similar path with her music, given her recent parting of ways with her longtime label, Columbia Records. “We departed on good terms, but I just realized I can not be on a label at all because I can’t function normally — and the normal promo things don’t work for me,” she said. “I’m in a fraught situation in terms of how I can engage with the