Grammy-winner Victoria Monét has expressed concern after Xania Monet, an AI R&B “artist” with a similar name, reportedly secured a $3 million deal with Hallwood Media and began charting. The name similarity is also confused with musician Janelle Monáe. Hallwood Media has not commented.
Monét finds the similarity unsettling. She told Vanity Fair, “It’s hard to comprehend that, within a prompt, my name was not used for this artist to capitalize on. I don’t support that. I don’t think that’s fair. When that name starts to ring bells in a certain way, it can easily be mixed up with my brand. It’s not ideal.
She noted that when a friend entered a casual prompt into ChatGPT—asking for “Victoria Monét making tacos” in a fictional scene—the resulting image generated by the AI bore an unsettling likeness to the emerging AI artist.
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Xania Monet, the first AI artist to appear on a U.S. radio airplay chart, has faced significant criticism. Telisha “Nikki” Jones, the lyricist and creator behind the artificial artist and her sound, defended her work during an interview on CBS Mornings.
Jones stated, “Xania is an extension of me, so I look at her as a real person. I just feel like AI…it’s the new era that we’re in. And I look at it as a tool, as an instrument, and utilize it.”
Widespread concern grips the music industry over AI misuse. High-profile artists like Beyoncé, Cher, and Paul McCartney are alarmed by AI’s ability to imitate their voices and likeness. This has led to over 200 artists and estates, including Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Marley, signing an open letter demanding greater protection against AI systems mimicking their distinctive sound and image.
AI is a real challenge for artists because it’s getting harder to tell the difference between what a person makes and what an AI makes. You can see this with AI music like “Walk My Walk” hitting the charts and big deals, such as the multimillion-dollar contract AI artist Xania Monet snagged.
Record executives and tech investors favor AI’s potential to generate limitless, fast, and cheap content with virtual performers, threatening human creators.
As Monét noted, “It definitely puts creators in a dangerous spot because our time is more finite. We have to rest at night. So, the eight hours, nine hours that we’re resting, an AI artist could potentially still be running, studying, and creating songs like a machine. How would any human ever compete with that?”
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