Kelly Clarkson was the guest on this week's episode of Las Culturistas with Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. And, much to fans' displeasure, the topic of AI came up multiple times.
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Within the first 10 minutes of the episode, Kelly described ChatGPT as her "lover" and joked that it's the only thing that prevents her from staying off her phone. She explained that she's recently been using the AI tool to help create digital plans for her home renovations. "It's a designer's dream," she said. "Yeah, I'm obsessed with it."
In the YouTube comments section, it's clear that the AI talk "right off the bat" did not go down well with listeners. "Put this on to listen to on my drive home from work, got to the chat gpt part and turned it off and drove home in silence," one user wrote. Another said, "kelly please hit me up for digital renderings that do not have the insanely negative environmental impact."
Then, during the "I Don't Think So Honey" segment of the episode, where guests get 60 seconds to passionately rant about a topic of their choosing, Kelly voluntarily doubled down on her support for AI.
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"Controversial, I don’t care. Here's the thing, I love AI," she began. "There are very amazing things with AI that I’m obsessed with. I'm very into it artistically, too. I have fun with it just like everybody else does."
"But when you see AI artists competing on a chart with humans, I have an issue. I think there should be a separate chart," she said. "I think it’s welcome! I think it's welcome to the table. I think it’s really cool and creative what we’re going to create with AI, musically... I think it's a fun field to play in. But I don’t think they should be competing with humans."
She continued: "I'm down with it, and I think it's a very interesting thing, and what we're gonna do with it is gonna be fun. But I do not think they should be competing." For context, Kelly is correct in saying that AI songs appear on regular music charts. Songs generated by AI have previously topped Spotify and Billboard charts.
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In response, Matt and Bowen brought up the AI "actor" Tilly Norwood, who recently went viral after a glitch caused her to start speaking Cantonese mid-interview. Matt said he thought the interview was "absurd," Bowen agreed it was a "joke," but Kelly — who said she hadn't seen the footage — suggested it's "kind of fun to watch."
"Here's the thing, though, it's not going anywhere," Kelly countered, defending AI yet again. "I think it is interesting, and so many amazing scientific things are happening. I don't think it's going anywhere. But I think that you have to be able to differentiate between — we can't lose human... There can be an appetite for both, is what I'm saying."
"I don't mind them being on the chart, but I feel like there should be separate ones," Kelly said, circling back to her original point about AI music. "I'm not against it... I'm just hardcore against it replacing [humans]. I think that both can exist. I think everybody's so black and white about it, and it's like, both can be creative in a completely different way, you know?"
As you may have guessed, Kelly's comments have not been received well, particularly her take on AI music. "Kelly… girl you’ve lost me," one user wrote on X. "This is so disappointing. AI is destroying the environment. There’s nothing amazing about it being in music, that’s actually terrifying. AI has no place in music or any other form of entertainment."
Lots of people were also baffled by the fact that Kelly seemed totally oblivious to the other dangers of AI, like the risks it poses to the environment.