ACE FREHLEY Explains Why He Hasn’t Used Artificial Intelligence During Songwriting Process

In a new interview with Germany’s Radio Bob!, Ace Frehley was asked if he would ever consider using artificial intelligence during the songwriting process. The former KISS guitarist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I remember calling up Steve [Brown, Ace‘s co-writer and producer] after we had recorded about five or six songs for [my new] record [‘10,000 Volts’], and I said most of these songs are about girls. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but I said it’s time to change some of the subject matter. And I had been recently — I was on YouTube listening to things that scientists were saying about AI. Elon Musk, he made a statement that he’s nervous about the regulations that we have in place at this moment and that AI, at any point, can go out of control. Some scientists have said that within five or 10 years, just like the ‘Terminator’ movies, prophesized they could take us out, all the robots and stuff, once they become self-aware.

“Google‘s making robots that have access to 20,000 computers, so a Google robot can beat any human being in chess, can beat any human being in math, can answer more questions than anybody, can get a perfect IQ of 200 or whatever a perfect IQ is,” he continued. “Mine’s 163. Thank God. I’m not one of those ones in the under-100 area. So we have these machines that have access to so much information and there is gonna come a time when they may become self-aware. And once they become self-aware, they may decide, ‘Hey, the humans can pull the plug on us at any time and we’re dead. So maybe we can make a better world without humans and start all over again and just keep a select few.’ I have no idea what’s gonna happen. And I just live one day at a time at this point.”

When asked if that means that he is not going to use AI anytime soon, Ace said: “I don’t use AI at this juncture. I know there’s ChatGPT. That’s AI. And my friend was here, who’s a computer genius, and most of the stuff I’ve learned about computers he taught me. He taught me computer animation. And he was just sitting in my kitchen with his iPad and he had that ChatGPT program. And he said, ‘Write me a song like [Frehley‘s 1987 song] ‘Rock Soldiers’ but in a country version with very patriotic lyrics.’ And within five minutes all these lyrics started coming out that went perfectly along with the music. And it’s unbelievable what it can do.”

Frehley continued: “I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of musicians are using that program when they get stumped for lyrics. What I do if I’m writing a lyrical verse or chorus, I’ll just say to Steve, ‘I need a word here that’s gonna rhyme. And he’ll go on the Internet and go look in the rhyming dictionary. And a lot of times we’ll find a rhyming word that works. We’ll just brainstorm for five or 10 minutes and it pops into our heads. But we don’t use AI — on this record. I don’t know about the next one. [Laughs]”.

“10,000 Volts” will arrive on February 23, 2024 via MNRK Music Group (formerly eOne Music). The official music video for the LP’s title track — directed by Alex Kouvatsos from Black Wolf Imaging — was released in late November.

Ace‘s next all-original album will be the follow-up to “Spaceman”, which was released in October 2018 via eOne.

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons co-wrote two tracks on “Spaceman”, “Without You I’m Nothing” and “Your Wish Is My Command”, the latter of which also features Gene‘s bass playing.

Frehley, who co-founded KISS in 1973, left KISS twice — in 1982 and again in 2002.

When all four original KISS members concurrently released solo records in September 1978, Ace‘s LP was the most successful, yielding the top 20 single “New York Groove”.

In 2016, Frehley collaborated with KISS frontman Paul Stanley on a rendition of FREE‘s “Fire And Water”. That track appeared on Frehley‘s covers LP “Origins Vol. 1”, released that year.