Nick Cave calls AI song generators a 'final, most soul‑destroying humiliation'

Nick Cave has called AI song generators "our final, most soul-destroying humiliation" in his latest Red Hand Files newsletter, Euronews reported on Wednesday. The 69-year-old singer-songwriter singled out the platform Suno by name.

The comments matter because Cave had appeared to soften on AI last year. Now he's back to open opposition, and he's aiming at tools that let anyone make a finished song in seconds.

What Cave wrote

Cave was answering two reader questions together, The Music reported. One asked whether art can be separated from the artist. The other asked whether he's a "doomer or boomer" on AI.

On the first, he said he doesn't believe the two can be pulled apart. Song generators changed that, he argued. In his words, as ABC News reproduced the reply: "At last, the artist can be separated from the art."

He then described Suno as "the Great Cancellator". It has "never loved or laughed or grieved", he wrote, yet it produces "an imitation of the soul" in fifteen seconds, according to Vice's write-up.

He called this an affront to songwriters who have "lived and struggled in this world", per The Music.

Unsure about AI, certain about songs

Cave didn't claim to know where AI is heading overall. Far Out Magazine quoted him saying it "may save the world, annihilate it, or do something in between".

On music, he was far more certain. He described song generator platforms as indicators of AI's "demonic potential to hollow out human endeavour".

Vice quoted him saying such tools "mock creation itself by rendering humanity unnecessary". That's the line behind the "humiliation" remark.

The softer stance last year

This isn't Cave's first attack on the technology. Music News noted he'd earlier called AI in music "unbelievably disturbing". It also noted he said his view had shifted "to some extent" after an AI-powered video marking 40 years of his song Tupelo.

That video was made by filmmaker Andrew Dominik and used AI to animate still archival images, according to Female First. Cave wrote that watching it softened his view of AI as an artistic device.

Vice described the reversal as a near-change of heart in 2025 and said he looks to be back in strong opposition. His own wording suggests the distinction is about use. Animating archival footage moved him a little; generating songs from scratch didn't.

Who this touches

The most direct target is Suno and similar services. Cave's complaint isn't about speed or quality. It's that these tools have no lived experience behind the work.

Songwriters are the other group. Cave says the tools insult people who've earned the right to write a song. He also told readers he'd received AI-generated lyrics written "in the style of Nick Cave", Euronews reported, and called them "a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human". Euronews ties that remark to his earlier comments on ChatGPT, so it may not be new.

Our take: I think the Suno argument is stronger than his earlier broad attacks, because it's specific about what he objects to. It also leaves a gap. He doesn't say what should happen to the tools, and he isn't proposing rules.

What happens next

The coverage reviewed here doesn't include a response from Suno. Nor does it mention any policy or legal step linked to Cave's post.

The newsletter itself is the next place to watch. Cave answers reader questions there regularly, and he's changed position on AI before. I'd guess more fans will press him on where the line sits between AI as a visual tool and AI as a songwriter.