Kelly Clarkson used her guest spot on Las Culturistas, the comedy and culture podcast hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, to argue that songs made by AI should be ranked separately from songs made by people. The episode went out on 30 September, and her remarks came in the show's closing one-minute rant segment.
Clarkson was clear that she is not against the technology. She described herself as a fan who enjoys using AI creatively and said it could let people make music they otherwise could not. Her objection is to competition: she likened AI acts on the same chart as human singers to robots entering the Olympics, and called her view "controversial" before saying she did not care.
Yang admitted he had not realised the two were already sharing the same charts. Stereogum notes that Billboard has not barred AI-made songs and is instead moving toward identifying and labelling them, while Australia now keeps entirely AI-made recordings off its charts and the UK's Official Charts has yet to set a policy. Industry groups are pushing to separate "AI-generated" from "AI-assisted" records, a line that would decide which releases count as human.
The conversation also touched on AI performer Tilly Norwood, whose recent interviews suggested separate Oscar categories for AI, and on Auto-Tune, data centres and training on copyrighted work. Clarkson closed by saying there is room for all of it as long as the human element is not lost. Stereogum's writer added that the argument that AI will open doors for people sounded unconvincing to them.
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