AI WORSHIP MUSIC:
Should Christians Care?

How do you feel about listening to music that's been made totally through machine learning? Does it matter if you can't tell if it was made by a human or AI? Could the lyrics and emotion still resonate with you?  Now, what about AI music made to worship God, or spread the Christian message - does it actually matter?

The number one song on Australian radio right now is a remix of Madonna's 80's hit 'Like A Prayer'. Not only has it received way more listens than any song from Madonna's actual new album, but there were questions being raised that there was no human involved in the singing of the lyrics, and that no-one actually produced the song - it was simply generated.

After much speculation, the human uploader of the song has admitted what many people suspected all along - AI played a significant role in the creation / emulation / simulation of the song.

When I started out producing, I was told the following story of one producer in conversation with another.

Producer A: I want to get back to the heart of making music and so I've decided not to use recorded samples in my music anymore.

Producer B: What about virtual instrumentation?

Producer A: No. Just playing in the keys through midi is not enough. I want my music to be authentic.

Producer B: So you just play acoustic and other non-digital instruments?

Producer A: Well, I started playing the drums, but I realised even the drums have been crafted by someone else, making them not sufficiently a true reflection of my music vision. So I started importing the skins to make the drums myself.

Producer B: Wow, that's commitment - you are a true musician!

Producer A: Actually, I then realised that even the animal skins have been selected, stretched and cured by a third party, so I thought to go back to the source. Authenticity is key.

Producer B: So how's your music turning out these days?

Producer A: Well, I don't have much time to make music these days, looking after my herd of goats and all that.

We could just as easily enter in a line at the start of that story about AI. A new technological innovation comes along and we begin to question what makes a creation authentic. What did photos do to painters? What did film do to theatre? What is AI doing to music?

Whereas a producer like myself takes between 1-2 months to create a brand new song from scratch, there are now music generating apps that spit out new songs in just a few seconds. I was speaking with one Christian who recently got into 'creating Christian music' who had generated around 5,000 songs in just a few months!

The music industry is very concerned that AI is taking over. Spotify recently admitted that they have deleted over 75 million individual songs off their streaming platform because they were 'AI slop' i.e. produced and uploaded by spam bots.

According to global music platform Deezer 97% of their listeners can't tell whether a song was produced by AI or not - and that is from a report published (way back) in 2025! The question then becomes whether we even need humans to create good music anymore? Also, as Christians we need to ask ourselves how should we be responding to this?

An Impending Decision for Australia:

Firstly, we have to recognise that the ability to generate songs from AI has only come about as a result of countless hours of machine learning. According to The Atlantic's AI Watchdog, the big AI datasets have trained themselves by listening to famous artists including Australian acts Cold Chisel, Sia, Hilltop Hoods, and Yothu Yindi among many, many others.

Naturally, this raises all sorts of ethical arguments as these artists have not received any payment for this use of their music - in fact it's safe to say that none of them consented, nor even knew their music was being used for AI training purposes.

According to the Australian Financial Review, this revelation comes at a time while negotiations are presently taking place between Anthropic as the owner of Claude AI, for investment into Australia worth thousands of jobs and an estimated $21 billion - supposedly dependent upon copyright flexibility. 

In response, Australia's national music copyright and royalties collection agency APRA AMCOS has begun a campaign calling for the Australian government to stand up for Australian creatives and enforcing stronger limitations around the use of Australian musical works in AI training models. Some music platforms like Deezer have decided not to make payouts to the uploaders of AI-generated music. At the same time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has recently announced Australia's Office of AI on July 15, and I'm sure there would be a lot of lobbying from both sides taking place right now.

With the new establishment of the Office of AI, how will the Australia balance investment into AI with support for artists' copyright? 

A Christian Response:

As a producer, artist manager and label owner, I'm someone who stays well clear of AI music; both in terms of listening to it and platforming it on Australian Christian Records.

While I recognise AI can be a useful internal tool in the music creation process; for example in testing lyrics; I actively discourage the public release of music made by AI; especially when it’s done in a deceptive way that obfuscates the role of AI in the creation of the song, and even more so when this music ‘praises the Lord’.

Here are my key reasons why:

1. As Luke says, "even the rocks will cry out", but in the case of AI music, the output from inanimate machines has only come about through the unethical training of human creative works.

2. Moreover, I believe God loves it when the worship we give him costs us something. AI generated music bypasses not only the act of music creation, but also the countless hours that go into training artists' skills and honing their craft.

3. The Great Commission is for us to complete - not machines. In terms of evangelising and reaching others, I place an 'artist' releasing AI-generated Christian music in the same camp as a pastor using text prompts to generate and deliver a sermon. 

What Can You Do?

There has never been a time like now where people are craving authenticity and truth. I think now is the time Christian artists should step up and differentiate themselves from the world. Whether it's a live performance, behind the scenes reel, or a song put up on spotify, we need to create personal connections using our art to shine a light towards the ultimate truth.

For listeners of Christian music, now is the time more than ever to support your local Christian artists. Make a decision whether you will be proactive in your music selection choices, or whether you will let the algorithm passively send 'good music vibes' your way. 

Further Reading:

Steve Munro from Vision Christian Radio recently published a list outlining 30 clues to help distinguish between AI-generated music and that made by human artists: https://stephenmonro.wordpress.com/2026/05/25/steves-tips-for-detecting-synthetic-ai-generated-music-songs.