An AI-generated country song has reached the top of a Billboard music chart.
Called Walk My Walk, the track is currently number 1 in Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.
It was released by Breaking Rust, who also isn’t real but instead a creation of AI.
According to Billboard, Breaking Rust is a relatively fresh creation, arriving on the scene around mid-October.
His debut track, Livin’ On Borrowed Time, reached number 5 in the same chart, while Walk My Walk, released a short while later, has gone all the way to the top.
As of November 4, the Breaking Rust “project” — credited to songwriter Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor — had generated 1.6 million official U.S. streams. But little is known of Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor … so perhaps they’re AI-generated, too.
Breaking Rust’s Instagram account has already racked up 36,000 followers, with the feed showing AI-generated music videos featuring the country singer. But nowhere on the profile page does it say that the content is the work of AI.
It’s not clear if the comments accompanying the posts are genuine, misguided, or simply sarcastic, but some of them make for an entertaining read.
“Love it!” says one, “Even his raspy voice.” Another writes: “Just … amazing.”
Someone else says: “I don’t know if this is a real guy but his songs are seriously some of my favorite in life,” while another comments: “Love your voice! Awesome song writing! I want more!”
The song’s success is a depressing turn of events for human musicians who are slaving away, trying to get their own work heard. It’s even more alarming when you consider the possibility that their own work may have been used to train the AI tools that created Walk My Walk.
It’s also a worrying development for music fans who would prefer their content to be the work of living, breathing humans rather than generative-AI software. Music streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music are still working out how to handle AI-generated content and stop it from taking over recommendation feeds, which could undermine trust in the service.
But Breaking Rust isn’t even the first AI-generated artist to top a Billboard chart. Xania Monet reached number 1 on the R&B Digital Song Sales chart earlier this month, making her the first AI-generated artist to hit the top spot on a Billboard chart.
The success of Breaking Rust and Xania Monet follows another big story earlier this year involving AI-generated Velvet Sundown. While the band didn’t reach number 1 on any mainstream charts, it did try to pass itself off as a “real” group by posting photos on Instagram, until it was finally rumbled.
While some might argue that music-creation tools like Suno and Udio open up amazing opportunities for those without any musical training, others will lament the direction of travel, claiming that the vast majority of AI-generated music is vacuous and devoid of emotion. And that’s aside from the controversy about professional musicians having their work taken by tech companies to train AI models without permission.
