AI is already disrupting plenty of desk jobs, but it could soon be making its mark on creative fields as well.
An AI-driven artist named Xania Monet has become the first AI act to earn a spot on a billboard radio chart. Xania Monet’s song “How Was I Supposed to Know?” was at number 30 on this week’s Adult R&B Airplay survey dated Nov. 1. This is the first time an AI act has earned a spot on a Billboard radio chart.
Adult R&B Airplay is a weekly chart published by Billboard that tracks the most popular songs on urban adult contemporary radio stations. These stations focus on a mix of contemporary R&B and traditional R&B music, making this chart a measure of the songs most played on radio formats aimed at an adult audience.
Xania’s hit single, “How Was I Supposed to Know?” is a catchy R&B number that talks about how Xania has been unlucky in love. It features catchy beats and smooth lyrics.
Xania Monet was created by 31-year-old Mississippi native, poet, and design studio owner Talisha Jones. Her songs are created through Suno, a popular AI music creation service. Jones writes the lyrics to the songs, and they are transformed into music by Suno. Thus far, Xania has created five songs, which have made Jones an estimated $52,000 in royalties. Her breakout single, “How Was I Supposed to Know?” first became viral through TikTok, and has since become a hit on radio. Her YouTube account has 161k followers.
And music isn’t the only field where AI-created content is making a splash. In July, Netflix had said it had used AI for the first time in its Argentinian show The Eternauts, while Amazon Prime had heavily used AI in its House of David series. An Indian movie from 2012 was re-released this year with an alternative ending created by AI. And with an AI-created song making it to the Billboard charts, it appears that creative fields could be just be as vulnerable to disruption as knowledge work in the coming years.