Solomon Ray topped the iTunes Top 100 Christian and gospel albums chart last week, and he’s not even real … or Christian … or black.
Ray is solely a creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“His most recent release, a Christmas EP called A Soulful Christmas, features tracks with titles like ‘Soul to the World’ and ‘Jingle Bell Soul,’ reports Christianity Today. “Ray is a verified artist on the streaming platform, draws over 324,000 monthly listeners, and became the top artist on the iTunes top 100 Christian and gospel albums chart this week.”
“But Solomon Ray … is not a real person,” adds the report. “Artificial intelligence crafted his persona, voice, performance style, and lyrics.”
Here’s video of Solomon Ray singing “Silent Night.”
So, what’s the problem if people dig it?
A competing Christian artist named Forrest Frank said, “At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it. So I think that it’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.”
All kinds of people void of the Holy Spirit (i.e., secular artists) have sung and even written beautiful Christian songs. It’s not the source that matters. It’s how the source affects the listener. “Silent Night” is “Silent Night” regardless of the source.
And let’s not forget that behind this AI creation, there are human beings with souls who create, tweak, and refine the sound, style, and look to their liking. Think of Solomon Ray as another version of a synthesizer or Autotune. Honestly, I don’t see a moral difference, but so-called “purists” have been losing their minds over musical progress since Elvis lifted his lip and Dylan went electric.
For three decades already, musicians who cannot play various instruments have released music online using computer programs that play the instruments for them. There’s nothing wrong with that. Musicians are still behind that computer-generated music, which means they are still creating the music.
All AI is is another version of that.
Maybe Solomon Ray’s creator(s) have an ear but not a voice.
What I mean is that his creator(s) know what he wants the song to sound like, but doesn’t have the voice to make it real. So, like the YouTuber who can’t play the drums, Solomon Ray’s creator(s) use a computer program to get that sound.
Solomon Ray is nothing more than an advanced drum machine.
Last week, last month, or last year (all the outrage blends together), there was an uproar over an AI country tune topping the charts.
Again, if people like it, so what?
The only way to succeed in popular culture is through appeal. You must appeal to enough people to make a profit, and, by extension, have a career. If a guy at a computer generating AI can appeal to more people than you, isn’t that your problem?
By all means, there should be disclosure when something is AI-generated. Beyond that, and I say this as a political writer when AI is replacing political writers, I say this as a (retired) novelist when AI is replacing novelists, if you can’t beat the machine, whose fault is that?
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
