Big & Rich are turning their latest song, 'Hello AI," into a warning about the growing role of artificial intelligence in the music industry and a call for lawmakers to address what they see as a threat to human songwriters.

The country duo, Big Kenny and John Rich, released “Hello AI” on Aug. 28. The song tackles questions about whether artificial intelligence can reproduce the creativity, emotion and life experience that go into human songwriting. The duo says the song is intended to start a broader conversation about creativity and intellectual property.

Big & Rich said their new song is intended not simply as a protest song, but as a conversation about what makes human-created music valuable.

The duo's official description of the song similarly emphasizes the “irreplaceable role of human experience” in songwriting and asks whether technology can truly replicate creativity or merely imitate it.

In an interview about the song on the Just the News Not Noise TV program, Big Kenny said the idea began taking shape as the duo watched AI quickly enter the music business.

“You can just download an app," he said. "You can put a title in it and have a song in a minute. You can download another app, put your song in it, have a video in a couple of minutes.”

While Big Kenny acknowledged the technology is impressive, he said the duo began wondering what it means for the artists whose work helped create the foundation for today's AI systems.

“Did anybody ask us if they could use all of our songs and all of the songs in the history of mankind to train these models of AI on how to make these new songs?” he asked.

Big Kenny said the sheer volume of AI-generated music could ultimately make it harder for human artists to be heard.

“What are these new songs doing? They're diluting the pool of songs that are out there,” he said. “The next time the model might use this new song that it created off the backs of all the content that came before it, so it just continues to dilute, dilute, dilute.”

Those concerns became the inspiration for “Hello AI.”

“It's called artificial intelligence for a reason, because it ain't real," Big Kenny said.

From there, Big Kenny said, he and Rich began “banging back and forth” ideas until they came up with the song.

The duo's concerns aren't limited to the creative songwriting process. Rich thinks the biggest problem is when AI-generated music enters the commercial marketplace.

“Right now, there are AI-generated songs being monetized,” he said. “That's where the problem lies.”

He emphasized that he does not object simply to people experimenting with AI for personal use.

“The problem does not lie with someone on their personal time messing around with it with an AI program and coming up with a song they want to listen to,” Rich said. “It's when those songs start to be monetized that you find a real serious problem.”

Rich argued that copyright law has not kept pace with AI technology.

“Now I'm not an attorney, but I can read, and I looked up the copyright laws in the United States of America — they're very precise,” he said. “Only a human being is allowed to own a copyright. AI is not a human being, so AI cannot own a copyright.”

He then raised the central question that he thinks is facing musicians and copyright holders: What happens when AI systems are trained using existing creative works and the resulting material is commercially distributed?

“AI trains on copyrighted material, not just mine and Big Kenny's, but as Kenny said, every piece of music and recorded music – that's what it trains on,” Rich said.

He said AI technology has allowed plagiarism to flourish in music.

“It allows money to be spent on plagiarism,” Rich said. “So what we have going on right now is the mass marketing of plagiarism.”

The legal landscape surrounding AI and copyrighted music remains unsettled, with multiple lawsuits involving AI companies and copyright holders working their way through the courts. 

The U.S. Copyright Office has also been examining questions surrounding copyright and generative AI, including when human contributions to AI-assisted works can qualify for protection.

For Big & Rich, the debate is ultimately about more than technology.

Big Kenny said he believes AI could have enormous benefits and does not want the United States to fall behind.

“I'm all about AI,” he said. “I think AI could be one of the greatest revolutions that ever happens in America.”

He also that AI could bring opportunities “whether it be in music or medicine,” but argued that those opportunities need to be accompanied by rules.

“But at the same time, things like this need to have guardrails on them,” Big Kenny said.

Rich made a similar argument, comparing the current moment to the arrival of the automobile. New technology, he said, can initially appear almost entirely beneficial before society recognizes the need for rules governing its use.

“It's a big deal,” Rich said of the legal fight over AI and creative works. “This may go to the Supreme Court.”

He also invoked the broader American ideal of rewarding individual creativity and work.

“It's not fair. It's not right,” Rich said. “It's antithetical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It's antithetical to the American dream.”

His argument, he said, comes down to a simple question.

“If I rip off somebody's song and I put it on the radio or I put it up for download, you can bet, you know what? I'll get slapped with a cease and desist and a lawsuit,” Rich said. “So if a computer does it, why is it any different?”