aceJean-Michel Jarre urges music and film industries to embrace AI
Abstract: Jean-Michel Jarre has attacked the conservatism of the music and film industries over AI and urged them to embrace the technology instead of being fearful and “very anti-AI”. Jarre, one of the pioneers of electronic music in the 1970s, said while the existing creative industries were “freaking out” over the technology, artists would use AI “to create the cinema of tomorrow, the hip-hop of tomorrow, the techno of tomorrow, the rock’n’roll of tomorrow”. AI’s power to generate images and sounds would not kill talent,
Jean-Michel Jarre publicly criticized the conservatism of the music and film industries, saying they are freaking out and being very anti-AI, and argued that AI's ability to generate images and sounds should be embraced rather than feared.
The exchange matters because it highlights a split within the creative sector between viewing generative tools as instruments for new expression and viewing them as systems built on uncompensated use of existing work, with no resolution yet on how consent or payment would work.
- Jarre is described as one of the pioneers of electronic music in the 1970s.
- He compared embracing AI to early film pioneers embracing the moving image and then sound in the early 20th century.
- Other leading musicians including Elton John and Dua Lipa have expressed deep anxieties about AI training practices.
Artists using generative image and sound tools could invent new forms of cinema and popular music such as future hip-hop, techno and rock'n'roll without eliminating human talent.
Sources
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-04-21
How should this claim be treated?
The debate