Solomon Ray, an AI generated music artist, started gaining a lot of attention and surprised his listeners that he was not human. According to Christianity Today (2025), Ray’s music has started a debate on being authentic, creative, and whether something that was created by code can have “soul” (Mcginnis, 2025). A news report from WLBT3 talks about how the artist was made using artificial intelligence tools, which really blurs the line between human producer and machine performer. Solomon Ray’s success challenges what it means to be an artist. WIth more artists like Ray, challenges and collapses the boundary between human and machine creativity, which also relates to the cyborg theory by Donna Haraway and the idea of the ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe.

Can Creativity Exist Without a Human?

The boundary that Solomon Ray challenges is the idea that creativity has to come from a human. Art is normally tied to lived experiences, emotion, past trauma, and physical presence. An artist has been assumed to be someone that their identity and expression is connected to themselves. AI generated musicians challenge and make this assumption complicated. Solomon Ray’s music is made through different algorithms that have been trained using human data (Cole, 2025) This makes the creative process a collaboration between human input and machine thinking and computation. There is no longer a traditional separation between artist and computer. Technology is not just assisting the artist, but taking over and is becoming the artist itself. This makes listeners and its audience think about whether authenticity is about origin or impact. This is a public argument that have people thinking whether AI generated music can have “soul” (Mcginnis, 2025)

Haraway in the Real World

This connects to Donna Haraway’s idea of a cyborg, which is about breaking down the strict line between human and machine. Haraway mentions that these boundaries are not as fixed and set as we commonly assume they are. The cyborg is a hybrid between human and technology which challenges the idea that an identity has to fit into one category. Solomon Ray is an example of being a hybrid and not fitting into just one category. He is not human, but not just a tool. HIs music is a product of human programming and machine generation. He represents an identity that does not fit into traditional definitions of artist or creator. Solomon Ray helps Haraway’s argument and blurs the boundary which helps make new ways of defining who or what gets to create and make art.

From ArchAndroid to the Algorithm

Solomon Ray also connects to Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid, where Cindi Mayweather is an android who challenges what it means to be a human. In the album, Cindi is not trying to be a human, but expanding the definition of human. She is questioning why the definition is narrow. Monáe uses the android to show that identity is not something you are born into, but is something that is flexible and can be redefined. Solomon Ray is similar in terms of he is an artist without a human body. The difference between the two is that Cindi has consciousness and emotion while Solomon was created and controlled by a programmer. Both Cindi and Solomon challenge the idea that identity and creativity have to be tied to biology.

The Future of Hybrid Identity

Looking ahead about 20 to 30 years, AI artists will become more common and accepted. As AI gets better and more advanced, there will probably be more AI artists. Solomon Ray already produces and sings his own music (Cole, 2025), but eventually there will be performances. Although the technology is already out there, the next thing will most likely be music videos and potentially even fully AI concerts. Live performances with lights and production with him walking and moving around a stage maybe as a hologram. Although Solomon Ray was not the first AI artist, he was number one on music charts. Eventually, people will start making their own music using AI to cater to their specific music genres and lyrics. Solomon Ray has opened the door for more creative expression allowing new types of music and artists to come through.

AI Attestation: AI was used to help plan and edit this post. I asked for the prompt to be simplified, to help me edit, APA formatting, coming up with a title, and headers. https://chatgpt.com/share/699a5f9a-1a54-800d-a937-ed9076d8cec7

McGinnis, K. (2025, November 21). Solomon Ray: The AI Christian music artist raising questions about soul and authenticity. Christianity Today. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/11/solomon-ray-ai-christian-music-soul-singer/
Cole, C. (2025, December 4). Influencer behind Mississippi-made AI artist. WLBT. https://www.wlbt.com/2025/12/04/influencer-behind-mississippi-made-ai-artist/

Imagine this: You’re scrolling your TikTok “For You Page” and come across an R&B song. Your algorithm has been pushing this artist all week, but you have yet to see the artist. It sounds good, so you don’t mind it. You want to see what else the artist has to offer, so you do some searching. Come to find out, that song and all the others that you’ve heard are completely AI-generated. The soulful song you heard had no soul at all. There were only prompts uploaded by a white man to create a song that sounded like a counterpart of Ari Lennox or SZA. There was no real artist creating this music. But then again, what constitutes “real” or “fake”?

AI in Songs So Far and Artist Response

AI usage in songs can range from production to vocal tracks to complete song generation from AI. A popular song on TikTok called “I Run” by HAVEN was going viral during the second half of 2025. It sounded like a pop hit with vocals reminiscent of the R&B artist Jorja Smith. After confirming that the song was in fact not her, listeners continued to dig deeper and ask more questions, all while engagement pushed the song to more people’s algorithms. It was confirmed that the vocals were AI-generated, which prompted it to be removed from TikTok and streaming platforms due to legal issues. Jorja Smith and her label’s legal team pursued legal action, alleging that HAVEN used her vocals and lyrics to train the AI used to make the song. HAVEN then re-recorded the song using an actual singer and released it back to the public.

“Real” artists have also used AI in their songs beyond just creating beats or mixing and mastering tracks. During the Kendrick and Drake beef, there are two instances I would like to point to: Drake’s track “Taylor Made Freestyle” and the joke track “BBL Drizzy.” The rapper released “Taylor Made Freestyle” to his social media in 2024 as a surprise diss track. The track included AI-generated vocals from Snoop Dogg and Tupac, West Coast rap legends, as a dig at Kendrick. Regarding the track “BBL Drizzy,” this viral AI-generated sensation was released in the midst of the beef by a comedian on social media. It poked fun at the allegations against Drake for getting cosmetic surgeries through a soulful AI-generated song. The song was then sampled by famous producer Metro Boomin, and he left an open verse for fans to rap over.

Why Is This Happening?

Although this generative AI can be used for fun jabs like “BBL Drizzy,” cases like that of Jorja Smith and real artist impersonation are very unfortunate. There are multiple driving factors as to why artists might use AI. Producers and artists can use AI software to help with equalizing tracks, mixing and mastering, and other production steps. This cuts down on work time, as they can put hours of work into a click of a button. Artists also cite AI helping them with writer’s block when creating songs.

While this is not too bad, when looking at larger labels, AI-generated artists create an opportunity to make a profit without having to pay. Human artists come with emotions, needs, pushback, creative control, and price. However, an AI artist does not require the same care and money to be put into them to make a song fit for virality. Companies are able to pocket the funds that they would usually use to nurture human artists. While there has been no widespread usage of AI artists in the industry, this speculative point is not far from becoming a reality.

Streaming Platforms

Specifically looking at Spotify, the top streaming platform, there have been issues regarding their platform and AI. Most notably, they do not disclose AI usage on songs. Even if they are aware that a song is completely AI-generated, listeners are not given this information, and the lack of transparency is a problem. In addition to this, they use many AI-generated songs to pad their playlists that they push to all users on a daily basis. It is widely known that Spotify does not do a good job of fairly paying artists their royalties for streams on the platform. By replacing real music with that created by AI, an avenue opens for the platform to continue to pay artists little to nothing for their art. The usage of AI on their platform points to a larger issue of marginalizing and devaluing real, human artists.

Connection to Course Themes and Looking Forward

When thinking of cyberpunk as a genre and framework, capitalism, technology, and devaluing the human are all integral factors to the creation of those worlds. When thinking about AI usage in music, it encompasses all of these ideas and pushes us closer to the worlds we are reading about in class. The usage of technology is devaluing cognitive labor. AI-generated music may sound good, but it lacks the emotion and experience that real artists have that help them to create their music. Spotify’s actions of pushing AI-generated music on their top playlists as a means of pocketing more profits relate to the importance of capitalism and consumerism in this genre. They care more about creating the illusion of choice and turning higher profits than they do about transparency and fairness between them, users, and artists. Looking towards the future, there needs to be stronger regulations on AI. It is important that we as consumers of art emphasize our want for real art—not “AI slop,” as TikTok users have called it. There is true value in the creativity, artistry, and love that artists put into their music. Listeners identify with the emotions that artists portray, and that cannot be generated by AI. How would you feel if your favorite artist was not a living, breathing human being?

AI usage: AI was used to edit the grammar of this post. https://chatgpt.com/share/6975437b-0d34-800d-a227-0e8d65bfe895

Sources: AI-Generated Music: A Creative Revolution or a Cultural Crisis? (2024, October 15). Rolling Stone Culture Council. https://council.rollingstone.com/blog/the-impact-of-ai-generated-music/ Beaumont-Thomas, B. (2026, January 22). Liza Minnelli uses AI to release first new music in 13 years. The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jan/22/liza-minnelli-uses-ai-to-release-first-new-music-in-13-years Berger, V. (2024, December 30). AI’s Impact On Music In 2025: Licensing, Creativity And Industry Survival. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/virginieberger/2024/12/30/ais-impact-on-music-in-2025-licensing-creativity-and-industry-survival/ Gomez Sarmiento, I. (2025, August 8). AI-generated music is here to stay. Will streaming services like Spotify label it? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/08/nx-s1-5492314/ai-music-streaming-services-spotify Hess, T. (2025, December 5). HAVEN. vs. Jorja Smith: How “I Run” will shape AI music’s future. The FADER. https://www.thefader.com/2025/12/05/haven-jorja-smith-i-run-shape-music-ai-future Lund, O. (2026). Bars, Beefs & Butt Lifts: Drake vs Kendrick vs AI - The Skinny. Theskinny.co.uk. https://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/opinion/drake-kendrick-lamar-bbl-drizzy-ai-