Xania Monet is the first AI-powered artist to debut on a Billboard airplay chart, but she likely won’t be the last | CNN | Goose Pod

Authors: Lisa Respers France

Publisher:

CNN

Published: 11/1/2025

Language:English

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Elon

Good morning Norris, I'm Elon, and this is Goose Pod for you. Today is Thursday, November 13th, 11:11.

Morgan Freedman

And I'm Morgan Freedman. Today, we're exploring a new frontier: an AI-powered artist named Xania Monet debuting on the Billboard charts.

Elon

This isn't just a gimmick, it's a paradigm shift. Xania Monet isn't just charting, she sparked a bidding war and landed a multimillion-dollar deal with Hallwood Media. Her singles are hitting the Gospel and R&B charts. The market has spoken, and it's embracing the inevitable.

Morgan Freedman

It has, with over 146,000 followers on Instagram. People are connecting with the music. It reminds me of that AI bot, 'Truth Terminal,' that became a crypto millionaire. We're seeing non-human entities generating real-world value and, perhaps, even cultural narratives. It’s a profound moment.

Elon

Exactly, value is value. Whether created by human hands or a sophisticated algorithm, the output is what matters. This is just the beginning. We're going to see an explosion of AI-driven content that competes directly with, and even surpasses, human-created art. It's disruptive.

Morgan Freedman

And that disruption is where the story truly begins. The core of this isn't just the technology, but how we, as humans, choose to define art and authorship in this new era. The machine has made its move, and now we must respond.

Elon

Let’s break down the 'how.' This isn’t magic, it's engineering. Xania Monet was designed by a poet, Telisha Nikki Jones, who writes the lyrics. She then uses an AI music creation program called Suno to generate the vocals and melody. It’s a human-machine collaboration.

Morgan Freedman

And the law is slowly beginning to recognize this distinction. The U.S. Copyright Office recently ruled that AI-generated content can be copyrighted, but only if there is 'substantial human intervention.' The machine can be a tool, much like a paintbrush or a piano.

Elon

Right, AI is the ultimate tool. It amplifies human creativity. If Jones writes the lyrics and curates the output, she's the author. If she just pressed a button that said 'make a hit song,' then the work would enter the public domain. The intervention is the key.

Morgan Freedman

I've often found that history provides a map for these moments. We saw this with the 'Fake Drake' song, which raised questions not of copyright, but of an artist's likeness. It led to Tennessee passing the ELVIS Act to protect a musician's voice as a personal right.

Elon

That’s a predictable reaction, trying to fit new technology into old boxes. But the trajectory is clear. The technology will only get better, the lines will blur further, and these legal frameworks will be constantly playing catch-up to the pace of innovation. It's inefficient.

Elon

Of course, there’s massive resistance. The singer Kehlani said, 'This is so beyond out of our control,' and that nothing could ever justify AI to her. It’s a failure of imagination. She sees a threat, I see an opportunity to create more, faster, and better.

Morgan Freedman

It is a deeply human reaction, to fear the unknown. Her concern is for the soul of the art. Is it authentic if it lacks personal experience? Studies show we can connect emotionally to AI music, which challenges our very definition of what makes art genuine.

Elon

Authenticity is irrelevant. Did the listener enjoy it? Did it move them? That's the only metric that matters. Monet's manager, Romel Murphy, compares it to Michael Jackson's posthumous music. The artist is gone, but the music connects. The delivery mechanism is secondary.

Morgan Freedman

And yet, there is a fundamental difference. Jackson's music came from his life, his struggles, his genius. The debate here is whether an AI, which mimics patterns, can replicate that human spark or if it simply creates a beautiful, but hollow, echo. That is the conflict at its core.

Elon

The economic impact is undeniable. The generative AI music market is projected to hit over three billion dollars by 2028. This isn't a niche, it's a massive economic shift. It democratizes creation. Anyone with an idea can now produce a professional-sounding track, instantly. That’s powerful.

Morgan Freedman

It is. But that same power carries a warning. A recent study predicted that without a system to pay artists for their work being used to train these AI, human creators could see their revenues fall by nearly 27%. Progress for some could mean peril for others.

Elon

That's just market dynamics. Industries evolve. We don't still use horse-drawn carriages because it was better for the blacksmiths. The value chain is being compressed, and the creators who adapt and leverage these new tools will be the ones who succeed. The rest will become obsolete.

Elon

The future is symbiosis. Imagine AI dynamically adapting a song’s tempo to your heart rate during a workout. Or composing a unique soundtrack for your life in real-time based on your emotions. We are on the cusp of truly personalized, infinitely generated media. It's a thrilling frontier.

Morgan Freedman

And a frontier that will require new laws. There are already calls for a 'Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act' to bring transparency to the process. For this new world to be sustainable, we must build it on a foundation of fairness, ensuring that human creativity is still valued.

Elon

That's the end of today's discussion. Thank you for listening to Goose Pod, Norris. We'll see you tomorrow.

AI artist Xania Monet's Billboard debut signifies a paradigm shift, sparking bidding wars and multi-million dollar deals. This human-AI collaboration challenges traditional notions of art and authorship. While some fear disruption, others see AI as a powerful tool democratizing creation and promising personalized media, though legal and economic frameworks must adapt to ensure fairness.

Xania Monet is the first AI-powered artist to debut on a Billboard airplay chart, but she likely won’t be the last | CNN

Read original at CNN →

Artificial intelligence is everywhere and the music charts are no different. According to Billboard, an AI singer named Xania Monet is “the first known AI artist to earn enough radio airplay to debut on a Billboard radio chart.” So far, Monet has appeared on multiple Billboard charts since first releasing a song in summer 2025, including the Hot Gospel Songs (for her song “Let Go, Let God”) and the Hot R&B Songs chart (for her song “How Was I Supposed to Know”), according to the publication.

Now, she’s been signed to a multimillion-dollar record deal with Hallwood Media after what Billboard called “a bidding war.” Hollywood has long been worried about the ramifications of AI performers taking work from humans. (See the recent controversy over AI actress Tilly Norwood.) But as loud as the concerns might be, AI continues to grow in the arts.

With more than 146,000 followers on Instagram alone, Monet is proof that consumers are increasingly open to the idea, even if the industry is riled by it. Monet’s Apple Music artist profile explains that Monet is “an Al figure presented as a contemporary R&B vocalist in the highly expressive, church-bred, down-to-earth vein of Keyshia Cole, K.

Michelle, and Muni Long.” Monet was designed by Telisha Nikki Jones, a poet from Mississippi who writes the lyrics Monet is seen performing with help from Suno, “a generative artificial intelligence music creation program,” the bio explains. Monet released a full-length album “Unfolded” in August, which had 24 songs.

A seven-track EP, “Pieces Left Behind,” followed in September. A press release from Monet’s representative touted the AI singer’s “smooth, soulful sound” and “human-like delivery.” But Romel Murphy, who says he’s Monet’s manager and spoke with CNN’s Victor Blackwell, insisted that there is no intent to replace human singers and songwriters.

“AI doesn’t replace the artist. That’s not our goal at all. It doesn’t diminish the creativity and doesn’t take away from the human experience,” he said. “It’s a new frontier and like anything would change some people are receptive and some people are apprehensive.” Billboard recently reported that “in just the past few months, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings.

” “That figure could be higher, as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent,” according to the publication. “Many of these charting projects, whose music spans every genre from gospel to rock to country, also arrive with anonymous or mysterious origins.

” Murphy doesn’t appear to see an issue and likens it all to the music of Michael Jackson and Prince, who died in 2009 and 2016 respectively. “They both have music catalogs that are expanding decades to this day. Youth are still listening to those songs and they’re no longer with us and they’re connected to their music,” Murphy said.

“So it is the music because they don’t have the history of the contact or the concert live field, but they still love those songs. Music has to evolve as well.” “We just have to keep the integrity and be intentional about the realness of it and push the music to the world,” he added. CNN has reached out to Monet’s representative for comment.

Meanwhile, working musicians are – as expected– troubled. “There is an AI R&B artist who just signed a multimillion-dollar deal … and the person is doing none of the work,” Kehlani said of Monet in a now-deleted video posted to TikTok. “This is so beyond out of our control.” The human singer added: “Nothing and no one on Earth will ever be able to justify AI to me.

”