SZA Torches AI Music, Claims Diplo Is Training Models on ‘Black Minds’

SZA set a flamethrower to AI music and artists who use AI to create, claiming that producer Diplo is “actively attempting to train it on the best and brightest black minds of writers and producers” in a post shared on her private @notmusicatalliswear Instagram account on Sunday.

“If your [sic] a musician and you support this degenerate shit ? Your [sic] DISGUSTING and there’s NOTHING YOU COULD EVER SAY TO ME TO MAKE THIS OKAY,” she wrote on her main account. “I hope u have the life u deserve.” 

SZA took specific aim at the AI music-making company Suno, writing in part,”Do not give away your vibranium!!!”

“Ionno who needs to hear this but diplo has equity in suno and is actively attempting to train it on the best and brightest black minds of writers and producers,” she wrote. “We make up 13% of the American population yet influence the world w our sound and perspective.”

“I AINT HEARD A WHITE AI SONG YET .. why so disproportinate? We have no protection in legislature medical or creative,” she continued. “The easiest to steal from. DO NOT GIVE AWAY YOUR VIBRANIUM !!! DO NOT TRAIN AI WITH YOUR GENIUS. F–k these weird a– vultures. I want smoke all summer.”

A representative for Diplo did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

Last week Suno’s chief product officer penned a defense of the AI music generator.

“At Suno, preserving artistry and human creativity is just as important as product innovation itself. We know that’s easy to be skeptical about – especially if you haven’t actually immersed yourself in our product. But most of the people building Suno are musicians,” Jack Brody wrote on LinkedIn. “Empowering human creativity is why we show up, not just some corporate positioning. We believe companies building AI have a responsibility to invest in safeguards with the same level of ambition and rigor that they bring to building products.”

He continued: “From our earliest days, we worked to build protections directly into the foundation of our platform. That includes clear rules prohibiting users from uploading or distributing content they don’t own or have the rights to use, meaningful enforcement when those rules are violated, and partnerships with industry-standard providers like Audible Magic, Musixmatch, and ACRCloud to help us identify and prevent misuse.”

“One of the most common questions people ask about AI is whether models can reproduce material from their training data. Our answer is simple: no, that should not happen. Our philosophy has always been that AI should help people create new music, not replicate someone else’s. That’s why we built our models around what we call ‘Original Creation, By Design,’ training strategies intended to reduce the risk of generating unauthorized reproductions,” he added.

“For example, we do not use artist names as a category of training metadata – meaning we made an intentional choice not to teach models artist names because our goal is to help people create brand new songs, not music that sounds like existing artists.”