Dr. Dre says AI is a threat to less-skilled music creators

Dr. Dre does not think artificial intelligence threatens music itself. In a joint interview with Jimmy Iovine published by The New York Times on Sunday, August 23, the producer said, "I don't see it as a threat. I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating."

Dre said he recently argued with people who dismissed AI outright. "They were against A.I. and I'm like, 'OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out,'" he said, comparing the pushback to earlier resistance toward synthesizers. He called AI "a new tool for creativity."

Iovine, who co-founded Interscope Records and Beats Electronics with Dre, agreed. "I'm very pro-A.I. in music creation," he said, adding that while AI will produce plenty of forgettable music, skilled artists who use it well stand to benefit. "In the studio, when gifted people have AI, they're going to make better records," he said.

The comments arrive amid a wider reckoning over AI's place in hip-hop and pop production. Rapper Fenix Flexin recently reignited debate after his song "Rubberz" was reported to have been made using an AI tool called Treblo, despite his initial claim that he wrote and recorded it the way he does every other track. Tyga also faced backlash this year for using AI to build his concept album, "$tarface."

Dre and Iovine's remarks suggest two of the most influential figures in modern hip-hop production see AI as a tool rather than a threat, at a moment when other artists are still fighting over what counts as authorship in the studio.