April 14, 2026
A new statement about AI-generated music by superstar DJ and producer Diplo stirred up heated debate today on social media. For those unfamiliar, Diplo is a multiple Grammy Award winner who has produced songs for Beyoncé, Madonna, Blackpink, Drake, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Usher, Bruno Mars, Mac Miller, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, and many others.
“If you are a creative, you need to adapt [to AI], or just like give up and become an Uber driver until everyone has a Waymo,” said Diplo on Tuesday to his over two million X.com (formerly Twitter) followers. “I know it’s not cool or classy to speak like this, but I’m not gonna candy-coat the future. It is what it is. Sorry for bad news, my purists. There will always [be a] need [for the] human mind and touch because AI will never suffer from bipolar disorder and autism like me and other creative people.”
The statement immediately drew harsh reactions in the comments from followers, who largely disagreed with Diplo’s take. Some accused him of propping up AI because he’s an investor in AI companies like Aaru (AI for human opinion predictions), while others opined that his AI support is a tactic to boost his music career. The positive comments were generally few and far between.
Why did Diplo decide to post this AI statement? It was in response to the recent posting of a video interview he sat for with YouTuber Daniel Wall. During the interview, Diplo made a number of comments that framed his support for using AI in music production. At one point, he specifically noted that he uses Udio for some of his productions.
“You’re not going to win. There’s no fighting AI. You have to just work your best to be the best at it right now,” said Diplo. “The best music is going to be used that way. I’ve been doing [it].”
Then Diplo veered into his overall philosophical and business framing for the use of AI.
“It’s proven every time that technology wins. The people’s attitudes and the people’s pushback always ages out pretty badly,” said Diplo. “You have to make it so that you understand the customer and the accessibility is what is always going to be triumphant. You’re never going to be like, ‘I’m going to choose the artistry and the hard work.’ You can talk that all you want, and some people will love that. But 99% of people are gonna just want the best product made the quickest, made the cheapest. That’s what the American economy is. We want to say we want healthy foods, but no, we want cheap. We want to like have things quick.”
Finally, Diplo unpacks why he believes that he, in particular, may have an advantage in using AI for music production.
“I’m in a position now where I can use these tools really effectively because people already trust me for like my taste and what I do,” said Diplo. “What makes me good at using AI [is] because I know how to prompt something specifically into like a time period, a producer, a sound. Young people don’t know that because they don’t have that. They don’t read liner notes like I did, or they don’t read Wikipedia like I did and understand music… You have to have knowledge. You have to have a history.”
Currently, a large portion of the filmmaking community has come out against AI (with notable exceptions), but some in the music community have taken more to AI as it, in some ways, according to some, mirrors the largely accepted tech-powered tools of autotune and sampling. You can watch the entire Diplo interview above.
Cover: Modified image of the Paramount lot in Los Angeles by Chris Long via Unsplash
