FN Meka, the rapping robot, had its record deal with Capitol Records terminated following a backlash over insensitive lyrics and racist stereotypes. The augmented reality artist was the first digital performer to sign with a major label and the first to be dropped just as fast. Penned to a recording contract in early August, the labels executive vice president of experiential marketing and business development, Ryan Ruden, stated that artificial intelligent creatives are “…just a preview of what’s to come.” Created back in 2019 by media company Factory New and using thousands of data points compiled by video games and social media as its source code. Co-founders, Anthony Martini and Brandon Le, specialize in “virtual beings.” We have come a long way since Gorillaz.
Ok. So where should I begin?
The biggest gripe is the corporate exploitation of Black people and Black culture. Specifically, the concept that a corporation can create a digital “Black” icon—a fake non-human who doesn’t have the lived experience to be Black, who doesn’t genuinely come from or represent Black people or their culture, but is instead an amalgamation of stereotypes—that the corporate owners then exploit for profit.
The problem is “digital Black man created by a corporate entity who doesn’t understand or in any way respect the lived experience of Black humans is bad.”
It’s bad because, if the people behind this fake Black person are not Black, it is instead clearly a pretend “this is what we think when we think of Black people” character—or, digital blackface—which is problematic because then you start to see the examples of what they think represents Black people (using the N-word, being beaten by cops) rather than having genuine creativity and respect for the vast amount of factors that make up the Black experience. This then becomes a problem because this fake-stereotype is then broadcast to millions, many of whom might not have the opportunity to experience Black people in person from which they can derive actual, truthful experiences, and then these harmful stereotypes are nurtured and spread, which ultimately leads to the mistreatment of actual Black humans (to put it lightly)
And, before the “what abouts”: 1) The music industry’s exploitation of Black people and the stereotypes of Black people is also bad. It’s not one or the other. Both can equally suck. 2) There is no singular “Black experience,” but corporate “this is what we think about Black people” representation is, in short, not it. 3) If you’ve ever been mad about “fake gamer girls” who only “pretend” to like games for attention, then you can understand the concept of why “corporate created Black(TM) man” is much, much worse.
This issue is hurtling towards every industry ultimately is that there is essentially nothing that humans can do that a sufficiently advanced automated system couldn’t do “better and cheaper.” I would love to resurrect Asimov and present this conundrum to him. Not because he would have anything useful to say, just to see the look on his face.