Why SZA isn’t fighting against pop girls, but against AI – and what that says about black music, human creativity and the future of streaming.
SZA announces battle to the AI. The R&B musician made her opinion about artificial intelligence in the music scene public in a new interview – and it’s not a good one.
AI hits black music disproportionately hard
“I’m not competing with the pop girls. I’m not competing with the R&B girls. I’m competing with anti-intellectualism and the easy way,” SZA said in an interview with ID, referring to the increased use of artificial intelligence instead of real intelligence.
Regarding the imitation of art and music using AI, she further stated, “It happens disproportionately with Black music.” However, she also made it clear that she believes that AI-generated music would be very stereotypical – in her opinion, simulating humanity and complexity would not be possible for the current systems.
Xania Monet: The first AI singer on the Billboard charts
The topic of AI and music has become increasingly relevant in recent years. SZA’s comments particularly affected AI-generated artists like Xania Monet, who dominated headlines after becoming the first AI singer to appear in the Billboard rankings and land a music contract.
Xania Monet’s website resembles that of a real person – posts and stories are regularly published on her Instagram.
Kehlani also spoke out about Monet, saying that the spread of AI is completely outside the control of real artists, which is a problem.
Streaming platforms are reacting
Music streaming services such as Apple Music have now introduced new regulations for dealing with AI music. Apple Music shows listeners if the music they are listening to was created using artificial intelligence.
Bandcamp has removed all AI-generated songs from its platform. Spotify also said it would reduce AI content and delete 75 million AI-generated tracks – particularly imitations – from the platform.
Impact of AI on the environment
SZA’s aversion to AI has been going on for a long time. The singer posted something on the topic as early as the summer of 2025. She wrote: “Hey, I hate AI… People and children are dying due to the damage and pollution that AI energy centers cause… Please use Google to learn how much energy and pollution running AI causes.”
She also addressed environmental racism – racist discrimination in the implementation of environmental regulations, which particularly affects ethnic minorities due to environmental pollution.
“Ghost in the Machine”: AI as a song topic
She also addresses artificial intelligence in her song “Ghost in the Machine” from the album SOS: “Let’s talk about AI, robot got more heart than I / Robot got future, I don’t / Robot got sleep but I don’t power down.”
The 32-year-old has no intention of giving up her fight against artificial intelligence. On February 20th, she released her new song “Save the Day,” which is part of the soundtrack of the Disney and Pixar film “Hoppers.”
