Brian May has said that “we don’t actually need AI” and to prove a point he’s ‘created’ an appallingly-bad version of an old Queen album sleeve using the technology.
Posting on Instagram, the 79-year-old guitarist shared that he had used Meta AI to create a version of Queen’s 1980 album The Game. The original, you might remember, features a black and white image of four band members side by side, dressed in black leather jackets and looking mean, moody and determinedly modern for 1980 - Freddie is clean shaven, May is wearing shades and Roger Taylor folds his arms and scowls at the camera.
However, in the AI version, three of the band have moustaches, a cheery-faced Freddie resembles a suburban estate agent on dress-down Friday, and it’s impossible to tell which member is supposed to be Brian. Most unforgivable of all, Meta’s AI seems to have decided that Queen had five members, not four.
As you can imagine, May was not impressed. “I just had to share this with you guys,” he wrote. “I asked Meta AI to show me what the cover of THE GAME album looked like. This is what it gave me! Good job, eh?”
“So this is the kind of intelligence that will soon be ruling the world??! Well, great. Maybe this is the time to realise WE ACTUALLY DON’T NEED AI!!”
Then he got serious and delivered a message to the new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham: “I believe the price we are about to pay for this 'inevitable' development is way too high. We must not allow these hideous Data Centres to be built in the UK. They will destroy our beautiful country, like they are already destroying beautiful America. Dear Andy - you must stop it now. Before it's too late.”
Queen’s guitarist has never been afraid of voicing his opinions. His anti-blood sports stance is well known, and indeed he recently said that Queen would never headline Glastonbury because of “they [presumably meaning Michael Eavis] like killing badgers”. He has also criticised Brexit, and in a 2023 interview with The i said that he thought the then Conservative government had “wrecked Britain”.
AI data centres, though, are going to be an issue for communities throughout Europe and North America and something it’s likely everyone will have to have an opinion on pretty soon.
Willie Nelson has already lambasted the proposal to build one near his hometown of Abbott, Texas, saying: “The last thing we need is a loud, water thieving, light polluting, data center anywhere near our town (or any others for that matter).”
