Kelly Clarkson's AI Endorsement Draws Online Backlash

Kelly Clarkson called ChatGPT her "lover" on air. Days later, she is facing a wave of online criticism for defending AI in music.

The singer made the comments during an appearance on Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang's Las Culturistas podcast. She described using ChatGPT to plot interior design plans at her Santa Barbara home, then doubled down during the podcast's "I Don't Think So, Honey" hot-take segment.

"I love AI. There are very amazing things with AI that I am obsessed with," Clarkson said. She framed her enthusiasm as partly artistic. "I'm very into it artistically, too. I have fun with it just like everybody else does. But when you see AI artists competing on a chart with humans, I have an issue. I think there should be a separate chart."

Clarkson drew a line between using AI as a tool and treating it as a peer. "People that maybe can't do certain things will be able to do it now … it's a fun field like to play but I don't think that they should be competing with humans," she said.

The response online was swift and largely hostile. "Very rare Kelly L and it's an insane one," one user wrote on X. Another was blunter: "'I love ai' girly thats enough you're disappointing and the planet is dying because of people like you."

Some critics alleged a broader celebrity push. "I'm 100% convinced they're paying these celebrities to normalize ai usage. cause who is actively listening to ai music im sorry?," one X user wrote.

Commenters under the podcast episode echoed the anger. "She worried about her kids futures on social media but she drying up the rivers with chatgpt," one wrote. Another said: "Put this on to listen to on my drive home from work, got to the chat gpt part and turned it off and drove home in silence lmao."

Others pleaded rather than attacked. "Kelly please mama we CANNOT lose you to AI psychosis I need you to delete that app immediately," one commenter urged. "So deeply sad to see AI promoted when the cost to the planet and communities with data centers is so terrible," wrote another. "I love Kelly. I hope she gets more educated about the costs of AI."

Some warned the remarks damaged a reputation built over two decades. "Her undoing years of being America's sweetheart with this statement…. What are we doing sister," one user wrote on X.

A recurring theme among critics was the threat AI poses to working artists. "Dont understand how people don't realize there is nothing 'creative' about an AI making anything artistic, like it fully learns through REAL artists it's never going to create anything new!!! kelly please come back to us i love ur work," one X user wrote. A YouTube commenter focused on Clarkson's design use: "Kelly please hit me up for digital renderings that do not have the insanely negative environmental impact."

Clarkson is not alone among musicians in embracing the technology. Diplo, Timbaland, Lauv and Paul McCartney have all used AI to create new music.

Her position also appears to have shifted. In an interview published just three weeks before the podcast appearance, Clarkson sounded far more skeptical. "AI is very helpful in other areas of life, but when it comes to art, I don't know, man AI doesn't have a soul," she said. "You need like the soulfulness of someone. That thing is missing. Nothing beats a real human."

Whether Clarkson responds to the backlash — or clarifies which version of her AI stance stands — may determine how much of this storm follows her into her next release cycle.