As artificial intelligence continues to reshape the music industry, Jimmy Jam is making it clear that he isn't against the technology—but he believes it needs boundaries.
Speaking alongside Terry Lewis for Pandora's Artists on AI series on the Black Music Forever station, the legendary duo behind some of the biggest records of the last four decades said AI's future in music depends on accountability, consent, and compensation.
“For me, the humanity in music is wonderful because it's the mistakes,” Jam said. “It's the things that aren't plotted out that happen, the spontaneity. So, I think that's the thing that I'm always going to miss in music if the human part of it isn't part of what the song is.”
Jam compared AI to the advent of the automobile. The technology itself, he argued, is inevitable. The challenge is creating rules around it.
“Like any technology, there's good and bad,” he said. “There needs to be guardrails on it, and there needs to be permission for it to be used.”
He also took particular issue with AI-generated content that uses a person's likeness or voice without consent. “I think the idea of just taking somebody's voice or taking somebody's picture or whatever and then manipulating it without their permission, I think that's wrong,” Jam said. “Anything without permission is basically wrong and disrespectful.”
The producer added that creators whose work is used to train AI systems should be compensated: “If you're going to use it to train based on something that we've done, for instance, then we need to be paid for that.”
Jam also argued that AI-generated music should occupy its own category rather than compete directly with human-created works. “They should have their own chart, I think, on Billboard,” he said. “I don't think that they should compete on equal ground.”
Lewis echoed many of those concerns, boiling the issue down to a single word: “accountability.”
“Nobody's loading in any flops,” Lewis joked, pointing out that AI models are trained on successful songs and ideas created by others. He argued that those creators deserve compensation and urged artists to embrace the technology rather than resist it entirely.
“You're going to be the driver, you're going to be the passenger, or you're going to stand on the tracks,” Lewis said. “I would suggest you don't stand on the tracks because the outcome's not going to be good for you.”
Still, Lewis believes AI can't replace the emotional connection that comes from live performance. “What's going to make things special is when you go to a small club, and the person that performs that song makes the hair on your arm stand up,” he said. “AI can't do that.”
The comments arrive at a moment when Jam and Lewis remain deeply involved in the music world. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of Control, the landmark album they created with Janet Jackson, while Jackson herself recently signed a global administration agreement with Believe Music Publishing.
