Is AI truly an inevitable technology we have to reckon with? Or have we just accepted it as gospel and never bothered to push back against it? Every time the idea gets discussed amongst artists, the same talking point gets reiterated: it’s here to stay, learn to live with it. Even legends in the music industry have essentially shrugged their shoulders, telling us to get with the times. Iconic producer duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis made a similar take on implementing AI, but with a few twists.
In an interview with Pandora for their Artists on AI series, Jam stressed that he’s always about personal connection first. “For me, the humanity in music is wonderful because it’s the mistakes,” Jam said. “It’s the things that aren’t plotted out that happen, the spontaneity. So, I think that’s the thing that I’m always going to miss in music if the human part of it isn’t part of what the song is.”
However, Jimmy Jam also argued that technology is always going to have “good and bad.” Similar to driving cars, there are always risks at play. But creating “guardrails” around it will prevent it from going overboard creatively.
Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis Give Their Take on The Rise of AI in Music
For instance, he fervently told Pandora that using someone’s voice for training purposes is malpractice. If there’s any training to be involved, there needs to be permission and payment accordingly.
“I think the idea of just taking somebody’s voice or taking somebody’s picture or whatever and then manipulating it without their permission, I think that’s wrong,” Jam said. “Anything without permission is basically wrong and disrespectful. If you’re going to use it to train based on something that we’ve done, for instance, then we need to be paid for that.”
Ultimately, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis called for “accountability” and its own separate chart. That way, there’s a clear discernment between music made by people and content made by the machine. Lewis, in particular, didn’t seem too worried about AI in music because it can’t replicate the genuine article.
“What’s going to make things special is when you go to a small club, and the person that performs that song makes the hair on your arm stand up,” he said. “AI can’t do that.”
Those same feelings of inevitability with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are similar to their feelings about streaming. In the end, they got along with the times. But that doesn’t mean they love it. “We have to have some reverence for people who create this music, man. It’s an art,” Lewis told Noisey in 2025. “It’s supposed to be different and move you different and make you invest. You used to have to invest, but now you just pay $9.99, and you get every song that ever existed. You have every flavor lollipop, and you get to lick ‘em all, so you don’t even have a taste for what the really good ones are.”
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