Transcription
AI generated Christian music. It's topping charts and captivating audiences all over the world. And more and more listeners are becoming fans of something that doesn't even have a soul, whether they know it or not. Because AI has gotten to the point where even the most tech-savvy users can easily be fooled from time to time.
But is that a problem or just a feature of modern creativity? Really has me wondering, is AI generated Christian music actually an art form that can be used to honor God as a tool of worship? Or are we simply allowing robots to control yet another aspect of our lives, only this time on a spiritual level? To answer that question, we have to look back at how we got here in the first place.
The year is 1956 and a computer named Iliac 1, created at the University of Illinois by professors Lejaron Hiller and Leonard Isacson composed what we know today as the first AI generated piece of music titled Iliac Suite String Quartet Number Four based upon algorithmic rules. The music itself kind of sounds like randomly generated string instruments, sometimes good, sometimes clumsy. If you're interested in hearing it, I'll leave a link in the description.
In 1981, we see a large jump in AI music advancement through the work of David Cop, who began to develop a project titled experiments in musical intelligence, which analyzes and recombines musical patterns to generate new compositions in the style of famous composers like Bach, Mozart, and Chopin. Following David Cop's work, machine learning really took off. That's when AI began to use neural networks, which are digital brains that absorb vast amounts of musical data and produce original tracks instead of just copying patterns. Side note, there's a massive ethical debate around the whole absorbing musical data part, but we'll get to that later.
In 1992, experimental musician David Tutor began his work with Intel to create a musical instrument using a neural network chip. Instead of running software, this chip acted like electronic brain cells that processed musical data from its hardware. This is remarkable because it was the first time a musical instrument was built to think like a brain instead of just following a set of rules or an algorithm.
In 2002, Francois Pache, a researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, France, creates something called the continuator. The Continuator is a program that was designed to engage in real-time musical improvisation, similar to the way a human would jam with their bandmates. It would simply learn your style and play alongside you. Now, that's pretty remarkable for that time period being that it was over 24 years ago.
But here's where things start getting interesting. In 2016, Google builds something called Magenta. And for the first time ever, AI isn't following a rulebook anymore. It's absorbing and learning music the same way a child would. Now, it's creating its own songs. And then 2023 happened. Two major AI music generators were created and sparked a massive output for user generated music. Introducing SNO and UDIO. Suddenly, anybody, your aunt, a random teenager in Delaware, a guy in Mississippi with no classic musical training whatsoever could open a browser, type '8s power ballot about losing his car keys, and have a fully produced song in about 30 seconds. The floodgates are now wide open. In fact, they're not even there anymore.
Meanwhile, the record labels lost their minds. And honestly, I can understand why. Sony, Universal, and Warner began filing lawsuits. Because here's the thing that nobody wants to say out loud. These AI models learn to make their music by listening to their music. Billions of songs scanned without permission, without credit, and without a single check written to any artist. And those lawsuits are still playing out to this day, and the rules are still being written.
>> My name is Nathan Thornnehill. Uh I am a full-time cyber security analyst. Uh I've been in IT for over a decade. The sources of this material that it has to do its analysis from is not in and of itself ethically sourced. You know, there's a number of lawsuits that have been going on with like Facebook that just torrented a whole bunch of book files from pirating websites and then use those to train their AI. So, none of those authors got paid. This is all sourced from most of the time unwilling sources or unknowing sources. And I think that's one of the major concerns.
>> Major record labels care about human artists the way McDonald's cares about cows. I hope they lose. Music made by AI should not be permitted to be monetized and any artist ripped off compensated. Better still, it should just be banned. And as of the recording of this video, AI can write, produce, and master a radio ready track faster than you can open up your guitar case. The question isn't whether AI can make music anymore. That's obvious. The question is, what do we do with it?
Here's the thing about Pandora's box. Once it's open, it doesn't care what genre you listen to. When it comes to genres, AI has done it all. If there's a genre, then there's an AI generated band that's most likely already topped the charts.
>> Billboard says at least six AI or AI assisted artists have debuted on various rankings >> from hip-hop and R&B to metal and even 60s soul music. Now, although there are tons of notable AI projects that have impacted the music world, I'm going to quickly touch on a few that stood out to me personally.
Take Sienna Rose for example, the '60s soul singer who gained 3 million monthly Spotify listeners.
>> On Spotify, Sienna Rose is listed as a neo soul singer with more than 3 million monthly listeners. >> Three songs on the Spotify viral 50 simultaneously, 14 million streams on a single track, and Selena Gomez posted her music at the Golden Globes. Streaming service Dieser developed an AI music detection tool.
>> Are you certain that Sienna Rose is AI? >> Yes, we are. >> And millions of people are wondering who she is. Well, she's no one because it's not a real person, it's AI.
Then there's Breaking Rust, a country band that climbed all the way to number one on Billboard's country digital song sales chart with 2.5 million monthly listeners. Once again, AI generated. But the one that really caused some commotion online is Zania. Zia Xania Monae is a gospel and R&B singer created using Sunno.
>> So from the beginning, I go into Sono. >> So okay, that's the music app, >> correct? So is the music app >> by a woman named Telicia Nikki Jones. Zananiel Monae is interesting because it first went viral, but then it got a multi-million dollar record deal. It also debuted on Billboard's Hot Gospel and Hot R&B charts and crossed 44 million streams. And it's not even a real person. At one point she said it's not all AI but an avatar. I don't know what that means but it's definitely all AI. In my research I did find out that she sells a course on how to be a digital boss, whatever that means, which is essentially just her teaching people how to do what she's doing. Using AI to get people to give you money, I think. Please don't buy this. Dang. 181 members at $100 each. That's like $18,000. All right, guys. Welcome back to Disney's AI generated school for giving me money. Just kidding. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of AI generated music projects that are raking in millions of views every single month.
>> People that are listening to these artists don't even know that they're listening to AI. Can't believe that this is legal to do. One artist, 2.1 million monthly listeners for an AI artist.
Now, up until this point, we've been talking about the secular music scene where genres like pop, country, and R&B are built around entertainment. But what happens when AI crosses over into the Christian music space and becomes disruptive? Well, that's exactly what happened in November 2025 when an AI generated soul singer named Solomon Ray, described on Spotify as a Mississippi made soul singer carrying a southern revival sound, hit number one on the iTunes Christian and gospel chart, number one and two on the Billboard's gospel digital song sales chart, and surpassed 7 million streams across platforms. He beat Brandon Lake. He beat Elevation Worship. He even beat Forest Frank. And Forest Frank responded to the controversy by saying this.
>> At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it. So, I think that's really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit. So, what what are we doing about this? Are we are we rejecting this? Are we championing this? I personally uh will not be listening to this. I already don't listen to secular music uh and I'm sure not going to be listening to AI Christian music.
And on that video, Phil Wickham commented, "It's difficult to envision a future where we look back and think creating AI was a net positive for our world. At most, it should be a tool for humans, not a replacement for them." Solomon Ray may be the big dog on campus right now, but he's not the only one pulling numbers in the AI Christian music space. I have personally found hundreds of bands with hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners and millions of listens on more than one song. And don't feel bad if you thought any of these were real bands. Even the homie cost Hinn got fooled. Sorry, dude. I just think that's funny.
Another group that consistently came up on my radar is the K-pop group called Amaya, who is not only clearly an AI project, but they won't outright admit it. And that's the big issue here. Deceptive practices for the means of financial gain.
>> This is Christian K-pop group. And what made this one stand out to me compared to the others is that there is nothing on the channel, nothing on their website, which is which is just a Shopify store, um, that says these are AI. And so they're they're not making an effort to to be transparent that this is an AI tool or an AI band and here's our mission, here's our objective. And I personally have a big problem with any entity that uses deceptive practices to take advantage of the church. And that seems to be the case with Amaya. Someone sent me evidence that shows that Amaya was created by a marketing firm in order to promote an AI app. And there's a lot more to this story, but just know that in my opinion, Amaya is a sales trap. And I think you should unfollow them if you haven't already. This is AI this account. It's all AI. It's all AI Christian music. You read the description of the video, it's like, "We were in the studio. This was a hard song." No, it wasn't. You're a computer. It was not hard for you to write AI Christian music slop.
>> It's one thing to transparently use AI to generate music or even create a fictional character to explore your creativity. Even though I wouldn't personally do that, as long as you're being transparent, I can understand it. AI doesn't have the Holy Spirit 100%. But same as your instrument, like whatever you play does not have the Holy Spirit. Whoever has the Holy Spirit within them playing that instrument, that's what it's all about.
This is Austin Blanchfield. He's an AI creator with over 240,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 200,000 followers on Instagram. He's one of the few AI creators that's actually championing transparency when it comes to creating AI music. If you get in this space like just being transparent like as transparent as you can like I've noticed that there there are people who will use AI music but then also like say they're promoting their music through like videos you know through content and they're using AI videos and it can seem like a real person and then it could be it could be really deceptive for me I am a real person and in every one of those videos I'm like hey this isn't my vocals I'm using you know AI produced tools with this and so I think it's important in the way that you present in your art that you're transparent about that process and saying like, "Hey, like I'm not trying to deceive anybody whatsoever. That's not my goal. That's not my mission. Like my mission is to serve you and bless you and encourage you and, you know, point you to Jesus."
But it's a completely different thing to use AI to do all of the creative work for you and then deny it so you can appear to be something that you're not. But how far does that line go? Photoshop, autotune, mastering your own vocals? Not on anyone's side, but what's the difference with this and artists having a team of songwriters, promoters, musicians, and autotune?
There's a gospel music creator named Chib with over a 100,000 followers that is using AI to fool people into thinking that he's actually singing. It's one thing to put out an overtly AI artist, already bad, but to then be a human and pretend the AI is actually you, is actually insane.
As time goes on, we're beginning to see the consequences of AI Christian music affecting the real world music space more and more. Take for example AI creator Hendrickx Brown collaborating with Maverick City Music on a song titled Run to You. Or Christian radio stations giving airtime to AI songs. Like this Reddit thread that says, "My local Christian station is playing an AI song and I can't get anyone to care about it."
I I think the most shocking title was this singer has no soul. It it just I feel like we missed the point. You know, I heard what Force said about I will not be listening to AI generated music. I I think that it's dangerous to listen something that has no spirit. But what what is the spirit? Right? The question goes back to what is the spirit? Cuz in that case, why do you read a Bible and take it as spending time with the Lord and spiritfilled when it's been replicated from the original form? Right? The original form were tablets, but now we have paper Bibles. um and we still treat it as such not because of the medium but because of the message and I think that same logic should be carried over to the music side. I hope people are a little bit more open and to see what it is especially with the world changing and if we as as the church as Christians continue to be the last to adopt like we have always been when there's a boom in technology right you know television or internet we've always been last to adopt because we feel like it's something the devil the devil created and we're uncertain but every time we seen that eventually we we get on board.
So, how do you how do you answer like people who say, "Uh, this is deceptive. You're deceiving people into thinking this is real." How like how do you approach those conversations? For years, we had Bugs Bunny running around educating people. Mickey Mouse educating our kids. Even to the point that we had, you know, uh animations made for uh the gospel. We're talking about Veggie Tales. I mean, fruits don't walk around, vegetables don't walk around talking like that and behaving like that. Yet, we widely accept that now as a form of education. There's always going to be that knee-jerk reaction. It's always going to be that resistance in the very beginning because people tend to fear or or to fall into fear faster than faith.
People complain about is the money. Like where's the money going? You know, if is the artist is fake, who who's getting all this money? That just shows you where people intentions are. They care about the money more than the message. So, one of the things I did for sure was take some of that money and invest in a in an album for a traditional artist, for a real human artist, because I still want that symbiotic relationship. Like, I'm not just trying to replace you, but I can take this money, use gather the resources, and share those resources. And I've already did that $15,000 into another project for a friend of mine. Uh, and she she's doing about eight songs. What I'm trying to say is talk to me. Don't talk around me and don't talk about me. Come come have a conversation. Sit down. Get to know my heart. get to know my intentions, get to know my spirit, and and see see beyond the headline, see beyond your own uh log in your eye, and and really try to see the God in it. I I don't know God's plan for all of this, but I know we should have a hand in it. I know we should be a part.
Now, I personally have my own opinions on Christian AI music, but I decided to take a trip to California and ended up at the Seabird Resort in Oceanside with a mission to find everyday average people like you and I and finally get the answer to the question we've all been asking. But first, big thank you to my Patreon members. Your support helps me make videos without the need to add any sponsored ad reads. Also, instead of using AI, I'm choosing to hire an actual editor and thumbnail designer to help me get videos out faster. And the majority of that has to come out of pocket, unfortunately. But you can have a hand in helping me. Scan the QR code or click the link in the pinned comment below to help support today.
>> Go to Patreon. >> Now, back to the video. >> Back to the video.
>> What do you think about AI generated Christian music? >> AI is going to be the future of of everything. Us as Christians, we got to start using those tools not only to inspire and help other people, but also to be at the forefront of technology, which is, I would say, tools that God is giving us.
>> What do you think about AI generated Christian music? >> I'm actually really against it, like very strongly. I think it's a positive thing. Um, if you use it correctly, I believe that uh AI is a is a powerful platform tool that uh we need to use for our advantage.
>> I would just have to say immediately it really loses the heart behind what the music stands for to begin with, right? It's it's speaking from that personal experience, right? And that's what draws people in when they can relate to it. I think that, you know, with with AI, it probably loses the overall heart the overall heart behind it. I'm not a huge fan, especially when it comes to like worship music. It It feels a little fake. Instead of having a person worshiping God and leading others to worship, having >> AI do it.
>> Does it feel deceptive when people think that it's a real person? >> Definitely. I would say it definitely feels deceptive to to some degree it does. Absolutely.
>> I mean, it's not deceptive in the sense that you could most likely easily find out whether it's real or not. you having the lack of knowledge of not being able to tell something's AI right off the bat isn't that person's fault. It's your fault. Well, that's a that's a little bit tricky. So, I I'm very positive about using AI as a tool for improving uh the quality of your work. Uh when you are deceiving people with AI, then uh that's another conversation. Like everything in life, I mean, you can use tools for uh good or for evil.
How do you feel about AI artists reach like the top of the charts for Christian radio? >> I think it's a way of the world, but I don't think that's a positive thing. Um, I think it's something that can be maybe fought against just because it takes away from like the real human like real human interaction.
>> I mean, God can use anything. God can use a rock. So, it's like I think there's a little bit of a hubris in if you're a Christian music artist and you're offended that an AI song is outdoing your song. It's like, well, God doesn't need you. Do you want to make Christian music to glorify God? Sure, do that. But if an AI song is outperforming your song, I mean, in reality, there's nothing really to be mad about. There's no human behind it. So there's the only thing you could be mad about is about yourself by not making a better song.
>> It gives people like you and I who don't have all the instruments. I don't know how to play a guitar, but I'm able to do music that uplifts people with the word, with the tools that that are being provided. I encourage everyone I encourage Christians to use AI um as a tool for creating content. I mean Christianity has been very influential throughout history and creating culture and creating art and creating music. So I believe that uh as Christians we need to we need to be influencers. We need to lead other people and on how to use AI properly.
Now that the people have spoken, it was time for me to take a trip over to one of the coolest Christian hip-hop shows of the year. And when I was on my way over, I ended up bumping into Christian hip-hop legend KB and his right-hand man, Amid, and they were gracious enough to let me interview them on this topic.
>> What are your uh thoughts on AI generated Christian music? Is it a good thing? Is it a net positive? Is it a bad thing? Do you feel like it's deceptive? >> I think if you're telling people that it's you and it's AI generated, I think that's objectively deceptive. Uh, I think that there's just certain things that humans are always going to do better than than robots or large language models. And I think it's to be able to feel pain and real joy and the the experience, which is a part of good Christian music. It's not very good to me. >> Yeah. >> I think humans just do this way better. >> That's good. >> I don't have a spiritual concern about it. It'd be one thing if these these large language models were built off of, you know, the tongues of of demons or something like that. The image bearers are creating the material that this AI is is very quickly putting together into songs, but it's just mimicking humanness. There certainly needs to be some regulation and lots of conversations about wisdom as we approach this. But it's new and I got patience and grace for us to get to a good place as a people and as a society. I'm hopeful even though there's a lot of stuff to be very discouraged about.
>> Humans cannot keep up with the amount of stuff that AI can do. So, I do think that eventually in regulation there's going to have to be some kind of different kind of billboard charting metric for AI >> and human >> because we can't keep up with a computer. We can't compete with computers. We just we don't we're not computers. It's the wild wild west right now. So, there's not a lot of regulation around it just like it was in the advent of the internet. But, there's going to have to be regulation. But, it is also growing faster than the internet was growing. And it is getting better faster.
Talking to KB and Amin really got me thinking. I'm missing such a crucial part of this story. Why not interview the creators who are involved? So, I decided to sit down with some prolific Christian artists and get their take on this subject.
I would place it somewhere like uh 80% bad. Man, I I I feel like it's a loaded question.
>> Generally, I don't like it. >> I would say my opinion is layered. >> I don't know if it's quite in the middle, but I think there's like a a 20% window of Huh. I don't know. Maybe there's something that can be usable.
>> For me, it's weird because it's it's it's not personal. It's not coming from the heart. It's just coming from a a circuit board. I guess I think when you uh compare like the snapshot of where AI is now and where AI is going and where it's been, you you start moving from preference until you start talking about principles. On one end, when I listen to music, I've I have never been the fan of the person that has ghost riders. I wanted to hear art that was created from a personal space. Once I found out uh uh an artist was using ghostriters, it's kind of like, ah, it's not for me. there's almost an insecurity always attached to the person using it where they either if they're using it for lyricism. They're insecure that their lyrics aren't going to be good enough. Or if they're using like suno or whatever to to create the music, they may be insecure that they're not a good musician or that they can't get to the full level that they might picture. And and so I think there is a level of deception and feeling almost guilty and defensive about it. If somebody's just like straight up just standing on it like, "Hey, this is AI music and this is my curation and people like it, you know, that's just the market." And like I can have I can have an opinion about it, but that doesn't change that that's what the market is. You know, just in the same way I can have an opinion about whether or not I think certain technologies should exist doesn't change whether or not they exist or will continue to exist.
>> If it's put out in the public like, "Yeah, this is all AI." like this persona is AI and the music's AI and everything. Like that's one thing, but I I think it can get deceptive when people use that and and claim it as their own. Then there's the other side that it's like it's very generic, very basic. The AI has not been able to capture raw emotions or convey something that is like, "Wow, that really pierced my soul." It's very surface level as far as generating lyrics. initially just surface level when somebody generates an entire song uh from AI my ear can pick up on it immediately when somebody puts something up like that most of the time I'd say 95% of the time it falls under the category of what I would consider slop I I feel like if we are thinking about God right and and we're thinking about how we're made in his image God didn't use like some other thing to bring all of this together, right? Like it was well thought out, well planned as a creator. And if we're supposed to be mirroring that, it feels like we are we're dodging like some beauty of of sitting there and thinking about something and seeing it come together. And also, I feel like we're we're shortch changing ourselves the experience of of reflecting God in that way. There's just this other part to it now to where it's like this AI thing can do things for you, you know, like it can just create things for you. it can do the work for you. And so it's like trying to like see the bigger picture here like what are we instilling in the next generation? Are we get I always think like are we going to what they showed in Wall-E where everyone's sitting in the chairs and they're floating around and everything's done for them? You know, it's like is that where we're trying to go?
I don't have an issue with people using technology as a creative tool and a creative means. Um, I I think a lot of the opinions that certain people have about AI remind me of some of the opinions that people had about like pitch correction or like autotune or even just digital recording and comping to begin with. And I think it's they still stem from like the same moral objection which is inauthenticity or honesty. you know, when we're talking about Christ and and worshiping him, that comes from a place of like uh experience and like what you've been through and what God's brought you out of and where he's brought you uh and what he's brought you into. And with AI, it's like it's it's not a person that experienced those things. It's it's a it's a model. It's an algorithm that like has just learned things from people's experiences. AI is not going to have a song where you feel like you wrote it yourself, like where somebody's explaining what they went through through a trial and a tribulation, through a hardship, and that you know comes from a real place because those words are spoken from somebody that has had a genuine experience, a real experience, and I relate to that. So now this song is the soundtrack to my life, and I'm edified through it.
the creativity element and the writing element is just as much worship as when you are teaching right like you know there's there's the aspect of like I'm putting intentionality into writing this like I I am sitting down and I am having to actually meditate on like who God is and I have to think about scripture and I have to like read the Bible to make sure I understand who God is and like what he has said so I could put it in a song and there's like that creative experience that is just as much worship as going out on a stage and singing it in front of, you know, 10,000 people or whatever.
>> It's weird with like with like Christian music cuz people will be like, "Okay, well, you know, I still curated this and it's the the end result is edifying and people are being edified by it." Yet, I always find those creators also exploiting it for monetary gain. You know, it used to be you you create a record and you put it out like 10 songs and it'd be like 2 or 3 years you'd have that out before you put another one out. And now it's like again the consumer mindset of like people are now just putting out singles like every month or two and just pushing a single every month and then throwing it all on an album once they're all out and calling it an album, you know, because again, everyone is just so like, "All right, what's the next thing? What's the next thing?" And the industry has tried to adapt to that. So, I think now with AI, they're trying to adapt even further and jump on like trends as fast as possible. Like, as soon as something blows up, replicate that. You know, it's it's almost like that mentality now. It's like, what's going to make me money really quick? It's it's just become a business. It's just become a uh what's going to make me the most money? What's, you know, what's going to get the most views and the most likes? And within the context of worship music, um unfortunately for a lot of people, it is a business just across the board. like that it's it's a massive amount of money that you know having a national church sync hit you know can actually reap into into the CCM world in the publishing domain.
>> you can't fake the touch of God you know when it resonates when it hits your soul when it it ministers to you when it speaks to you can't fake that you AI ain't spending time in a prayer closet with the Lord seeking his face. I have songs that, you know, where where they're birthed from my own creativity. And then there's times that are this where songs are birthed from just the touch of the Holy Spirit and I know it. I'm like, "Yeah, God gave me this. This is this is the Lord." And AI will never ever be able to mimic that ever.
>> As a creative, I think it's terrible. Period. Now, from from a biblical perspective though, and this is going to be controversial, God rejects it. God does not accept AI music.
>> All right, so here are my thoughts. I am not big into AI and I would not personally create AI generated Christian music. However, I don't think it is sinful and I don't think AI is demonic and at the end of the day, it's a convictional issue. You don't have the right to look down on somebody if they use AI. Now, I think it goes the other way, too. If you are using AI and you are looking at somebody who does not use AI, you don't have the right to look down on them and say, "Well, you are not going to succeed if you don't use AI because AI is the future." Again, at the end of the day, I think it's a convictional issue. If your conviction does not allow you to use AI after all the things that you've seen, then by all means, don't use AI and feel free to have conversations about that, but don't use that as an excuse to look down on somebody or mistreat somebody.
If you want to know my opinion, I don't really like AI and I certainly don't use it in creative purposes, but I have some friends that I've met some people who deeply love the Lord and they use it for great purposes. So, I'm going to let the Holy Spirit work on them as he works on me. And that's been kind of a learning process for me because I went into this being very, very anti- AI, just so you know. But after talking to some people who genuinely love the Lord and use the technology for good, the Holy Spirit had to soften my heart.
I think I was so adamantly against AI because I'm an artist and I come from a family of artists. My parents were touring musicians and I grew up on the road and that's how they made their living. I can't imagine them losing their jobs because AI came along and took that away from them. I don't know how I would feel as a kid. I also have some very good friends who are illustrators and artists and that's how they make their living. And if AI took their jobs away, then I would be very sad. And there's a lot of uneasy questions that I'm wrestling with right now. like these big giant corporations, they're growing so fast and they're trampling small businesses and they're trampling creators and they're stealing other people's creativity in order to train their data. I think that's terrible. And every AI creator that I talked to agreed. They said that that is awful. They don't want that to happen. But they are also supporting those companies that do do that.
This is a a far more nuanced conversation than anybody can just say good, bad, in between. Some of it is really good, some of it is really bad. But at the end of the day, there has to be transparency, accountability. There needs to be rules in place. And I think you can use AI in the right way, but we're just not seeing a lot of that right now. Now, I don't think it should write sermons, and I don't think it should have a role in anything spiritual. And I think that we should go as analog as possible. Like, we should start getting away from a lot of these AI tools, begin to pick up organic tools. But I want to know your thoughts. What are your opinions? Let me know in the comments section. And if I should do a part two, let me know. I can work on that right away. Okay, bye.