In 1999, I interviewed Prince for TIME and he told me to leave my tape recorder off because he didn’t trust what future technology might do with unauthorized recordings of his voice.

At the time, I thought Prince was being paranoid.

Recently, Xania Monet became the first known AI-powered musical act to debut on a Billboard magazine airplay chart. Another reportedly AI-driven act, Breaking Rust , recently topped the “Country Digital Song Sales” chart. We don’t know exactly what went into creating these AI-powered acts, but typically they are trained on the work of human musicians.

I realize now that Prince wasn’t paranoid, he was prescient.

The AI music machine

Billboard reports that at least six AI or AI-assisted acts have appeared on its charts in the last few months—and that

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