No, AI Is Not “Just Like AutoTune”
As the music industry wrestles with just what to do about generative AI programs like Suno that can quite literally compose an entire song including lyrics, instrumentation, production, and everything else in a matter of seconds solely based off of a textual prompt, there has been one dangerous falsehood parroted out by AI’s proponents and apologists: It’s no different than AutoTune—the software that allows a sharp or flat note to be brought in tune in either a recorded or live performance.
Most any time AI comes up, this common defense is found. West Coast rapper Tyga has been catching flack recently from some in the hip-hop community over his new album released under the pseudonym $starface on July 31st that leans heavy on ’80s-style synth sounds and guitar solos. The suspicion was that much of the album was generated with AI and Suno specifically. In a feature for hip-hop magazine Vibe, Tyga flat out admitted it.
“I’ve never spoken on this with anybody because I always felt like it’s similar to a magician explaining how he does his tricks. Like why are people over-explaining how they make sh– that’s good?” he said when directly asked if he used AI. “It’s supposed to give you an experience and a feeling. But we definitely used AI as a [tool]. And I know people are going to be mad about me saying this, but it’s where technology is going. It’s no different than when Auto-Tune came out. Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it.”
Sure, maybe it’s no different in how people were mad when AutoTune first came out. But to compare the technological leap of AutoTune to AI is an apples to bowling balls comparison. AutoTune when originally developed was never meant to be a blanket fix-all for performers who couldn’t sing whatsoever. Its purpose was to tune a sour note or two in an otherwise stellar studio performance so the singer wouldn’t have to waste time singing the part again, and perhaps not as well as the first take, aside from the sour notes.
Then Cher used AutoTune for the vocal effect in the chorus of her song “Believe” released in 1998, and all of a sudden artists were using the program to purposely give vocals a more robotic sound. If anything, that was a more artistic use as compared to the one of using it to tune off-pitch vocals. Then you had T-Pain, who built his entire career off of AutoTuned vocal tracks, and performers using the program not just to tune one or two notes in the studio, but entire performances, and in live settings.
But it was never a situation where the public and the industry completely accepted AutoTune use. Jay-Z famously release the anti-AutoTune song “D.O.A. (Death of AutoTune)” in 2009. And even today, artists get accused all the time of using AutoTune to cover up for vocal flaws or a general lack of singing talent.
Yet even at its most sinister, deceiving use—which is a singer performing live with full pitch correction to make up for the fact they can’t sing in tune at all—there is no way you can compare it to the kind of capabilities and ramifications of AI. With AutoTune, you still need a human singing to create the performance. With Suno, you don’t need anything, except the unauthorized use of copyrighted material from existing recorded music that Suno pulls from to generate its tracks, or the parts of tracks. This is the reason every major label is suing the company at the moment.
But what Tyga is right about is that many are using the technology, and unabashedly. And it’s most definitely not just confined to the hip-hop space. Traditional country artist Joe Nichols recently explained how country songwriters are using Suno to create demo recordings of songs they write to pitch them to artists. It’s become commonplace to see these kinds of practices as harmless, as long as the AI demos don’t make it out into the wild, and it’s simply used as a song development tool.
But again, those demos built through Suno are relying on the work of artists that never gave the company permission to use them. Those artists are also not being compensated, and those artists are having their entire livelihoods put at risk by the technology. It is the most slippery of all slopes when people start apologizing for AI use, or equating it to marginal technology leaps like being able to tune vocals.
Rapper Tyga goes on in the interview to clarify that all the writing and the vocals on his new album are his. It was just the music that was generated by AI. “There’s nothing wrong with using technology as a tool,” he says. This is true … until that technology completely replaces the humans that are trying to use that tool by making them obsolete. Then you have an existential crisis in the music industry, and in humanity. This is the technological dystopia you trundle toward when you try to act like AI is just as trivial as the use of AutoTune.
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August 10, 2026 @ 8:43 am
Funny how things devolved to the point where Auto-Tune is being defended like it’s a Solid State amp vs Tube amp argument. Acceptance and ignorance over the use of Auto Tune and pitch correction is why generative AI music has a level of acceptance.
August 10, 2026 @ 9:05 am
Again Strait, your brain is broken when it comes to the whole AutoTune argument. No, nobody is defending the use of AutoTune. That’s why it said in the article,
“But it was never a situation where the public and the industry completely accepted AutoTune use. Jay-Z famously release the anti-AutoTune song “D.O.A. (Death of AutoTune)” in 2009. And even today, artists get accused all the time of using AutoTune to cover up for vocal flaws or a general lack of singing talent.”
August 10, 2026 @ 9:57 am
Wow….I’m gonna choose to be not be equally rude in response to that. You and many other people have ignored the widespread use of live pitch correction by major acts for 5+ years now. You have cherry picked some obvious examples of pitch correction and held that up like some kind of integrity plaque. Just to be clear I’m putting you in the ignorance category of my previous statement, not the acceptance side. (even though willful ignorance is a form of acceptance)
August 10, 2026 @ 10:09 am
You vehemently denied that Parker Mccollum would lie about using live pitch correction. You also denied my accusation that Charley Crocket used heavy pitch correction on his Bad Company cover. I think you should stay in your lane as a drummer because hearing pitch isn’t your thing.
August 10, 2026 @ 9:05 am
The unstoppable march of ‘progress’. Sadly.
August 10, 2026 @ 9:13 am
I’m as anti-AI as anyone, and am generally against autotune usage (with an exception for artists like T-Pain for whom the pitch manipulation is part of the art, rather than covering a flaw).
But the cold-hearted reality is that if it sells, it’s going to get made. And it’s going to sell, because most people don’t care. The best outcome is to twist the arms of the producers into some sort of labeling requirement, and even that will be tough.
Again – not a fan, just a realist.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:23 am
The question of “if it sells” is TBD IMO. You are seeing a few “viral” AI songs pop up, but it seems once people realize it is AI-generated, the popularity of said song sharply declines.
Grifters and folks locked in AI-delirium due to chatting with a bot all day are convinced AI-music is the future. I’m not so sure that is the case. I think it is inevitable that AI tools become a part of the music process – if it isn’t already – and I also think certain genre’s are more apt for AI music to take over (EDM seems obvious for one). But the immense public pushback against this tech is something unprecedented in modern times. Not sure that just goes away over time.
August 10, 2026 @ 9:39 am
The biggest fear to me is that Gen Z seems to be embracing AI without reservation. They use it for everything. Sadly, they don’t seem to care if the music they listen to is generated by AI or not.
I fear that sooner rather than later, we will lose the real art and the real artists.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:03 am
That’s not my experience whatsoever. Gen Z and Mellenials seem to be wholesale rejecting it vociferously because they see it eroding their future, while boomer tech oligarchs and celebrity types like Jeff Bridges sing its praises. Granted, many younger people are using things like Ai-enhanced search on a regular basis. But as far as things like Suno, they’re not interested to a greater degree. They’re also less easily tricked by AI, while Facebook is full of viral AI content being pushed by unsuspecting 65-80+-year-olds.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:33 am
Millennial here to agree with you. I use it for a lot but I refuse to accept it for art.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:05 am
Do they? Gen Z is also the same generation booing every dipshit commencement speaker who lectured them on how AI is the “new industrial revolution”.
If we want to pain with a big brush, Boomers seem to enjoy AI slop more than any generation based on the prevalence of it on platforms like Facebook and YouTube where it is routine to see AI slop videos and photos posted. And not a lot of Gen Z-ers are hanging out on Facebook these days…
August 10, 2026 @ 10:20 am
I think that’s all generally correct, though I do see lots of young Millennials and Gen Z rapidly becoming accustomed to using ChatGPT or similar to do their writing for them.
That won’t necessarily transition to the arts, but I think the relationship between age and AI uptake is complex.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:31 am
Yeah it’s Boomers who are choosing to listen to AI slop. I believe the majority of casual listeners don’t even know it’s AI – it’s just something that auto-played on Youtube. Gen Z doesn’t understand that the overwhelming majority of modern music that they listen to has been heavily pitch corrected. It’s why comments on a genuinely live vocal performance online will say that it’s bad.
August 10, 2026 @ 9:59 am
The timing of your article… A close friend (Gen X/Boomer age range) sent me a Gospel song this morning that sounds AMAZING. It sounds like Eric Church + Stapleton + Bluegrass without sounding Contemporary Christian. I was really really wanting it to be a real artist. I was ready to binge. If this were to be a real artist I would travel to see them.
There’s no social media presence, no tour dates, not even an artist Facebook page.
And I just cant do it. I just can’t.
August 10, 2026 @ 10:30 am
Man I’m listening to that album now out of curiosity. In sparse, almost corny 80s synth and drum machine production, I guess he picked a genre that would almost work. But it sounds extra cheesy, Casio-like (not in a good way), and amateurish.
The auto-tune excuse is indeed lame. But I understand the argument that the over-incursion of technology into music over the last several decades primed the average listener to not know or care. Most EDM is programmed on a computer with a mouse. Hip hop beat makers typically, at most, tap a beat into a machine or chop up and repurpose other people music. There are truly pop stars who can’t sing without autotune. Even a Metallica album is over edited to death (and they used to do that when they recorded on tape). So much music is overly produced, machine made or perfected, and too perfect sounding. AI text prompts are definitely a huge leap over some of these technologies, but it’s been a slow and steady march of the human element being removed from music, for a long time.
I think AI has a place in engineering, research, eliminating mundane tasks, etc. But there is a reason I’ve gravitated to country music and other full band type music. I like the feel, spontaneity, and energy of human made music. Maybe AI will force the mainstream back to human made music. But then again, most people are dumb, so I’m not holding my breath.