A fan of Nick Cave's from New Zealand, sent the artist a song generated by ChatGPT, the somewhat controversial AI text generator now available for public use.

On his website The Red Hand Files, where he responds to fans' and readers' questions, Cave posted the song in full and wrote back to the fan who'd sent it to him.

Here's the song ChatGPT produced:

Verse 1: In the depths of the night, I hear a call / A voice that echoes, through the hall / It's a siren's song, that pulls me in / Takes me to a place, where I can't begin

Chorus: I am the sinner, I am the saint / I am the darkness, I am the light / I am the hunter, I am the prey / I am the devil, I am the savior

Verse 2: I walk the streets, with my head held high / I've got my demons, but I'll make them fly / I'll dance with the devil, and I'll play his game / I'll be the one, to call his name

Chorus: I am the sinner, I am the saint / I am the darkness, I am the light / I am the hunter, I am the prey / I am the devil, I am the savior

Bridge: I've got the blood of angels, on my hands / I've got the fire of hell, in my eyes / I'm the king of the abyss, I'm the ruler of the dark / I'm the one that they fear, in the shadows they hark

Chorus: I am the sinner, I am the saint / I am the darkness, I am the light / I am the hunter, I am the prey / I am the devil, I am the savior

Outro: So come with me, to the edge of the night / Where the darkness and the light collide / We'll walk the line, between the good and the bad / And we'll see, who comes out on top in the end.

Cave's response begins by saying he's had a number of AI-generated songs "in the style of Nick Cave" sent to him, and he expresses his lack of enthusiasm for the technology. "I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy," he says, "but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster."

Of the song above, he says, "This song sucks." He goes on:

What ChatGPT is, in this instance, is replication as travesty. ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song. It could perhaps in time create a song that is, on the surface, indistinguishable from an original, but it will always be a replication, a kind of burlesque. [...] What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite.

There's more to Cave's response, which you can read here and which is very much worth your time. But it's a succinct breakdown of the chasm that exists between AI- and human-generated art, which won't ever close.