Watch: Billy Strings Responds to AI Art Controversy Stemming From NYE Shirt Sales

Photo Credit: Jesse Faatz

Today, Billy Strings posted a video on his official Instagram account addressing the potential use of AI art, which was presented as fan-drawn originals on merchandise sold during his New Year’s Eve run in New Orleans from Dec. 29 through 31. 

The video, which can be viewed in full below, presents Strings speaking directly to the camera. The musician starts out, “I’m popping on here to talk a little about New Year’s Eve and these t-shirt designs that everyone has claimed were made by AI.” 

Strings continued, “Let me start from the beginning and kinda explain how this happened in the first place… I’m pretty hands-on with the art, you know? I try to approve everything, but with everything going on and all the shows and stuff, there are times where I maybe have been a little complacent.

“And this is a big lesson that I’m learning. I saw these designs come through, and I was kinda just like, ‘Yeah, sure. Why not? It’s New Year’s Eve, it’s like one event, so, sure.’ They seemed like cool enough designs to me. Looks like something some other artist would have made,” he added.

“I really thought it was cool because it was a fan’s art,” Strings acknowledged. “I thought that it was the kind thing to do… You know, we have fans that make really cool art, and they submit it a lot of times, and we haven’t really used much of it–but I’ve always wanted to because they make some really cool shit, cooler shit than we could even think of.” 

Getting to the crux, Strings said, “We go out on a limb, and we try to use this fan’s art. So, the day of the show–the first of three in New Orleans, down there, I got online and I saw all this internet and I see this fuss, this big kerfuffle online, talking about how these shirts are AI, and callin’ me out, callin’ the artist out.”

Strings remains unsure about the human component of the shirt but shared that he reached out to his manager who confirmed the person who submitted the design has yet to prove it is original with line drawings. Using an analogy to assume the shirt in question is, in fact, AI-generated imagery, Strings added, “But you know I’ve always said if 500 people are callin’ it a bluebird, the fuckin’ bird’s probably blue.”

Watch Billy String’s video below.