Yes, Grimes' new music video used AI — and lots of humans

• Grimes' new "Accelerando" music video includes some AI-generated elements, her representative confirmed to BI.
• Grimes said 70 artists and production professionals made the video and deserve credit. The video shows footage of the shoot.
• No AI was used to record the song or its vocals, a spokesperson for the singer said.

Grimes' fans have debating one question this week: How much — if any — AI did the pop artist use in her new music video?

"Are we tripping or does this look like AI CGI for you too?" a Redditor posted on a subreddit dedicated to the singer, whose real name is Claire Boucher.

Several people were quick to point to the music video's credits: "Why do you assume AI wasn't used? AI artists are listed in the credits," the thread's top comment reply reads. Similar questions have been circling on X and in the video's YouTube comments.

A spokesperson for Grimes told Business Insider the answer is different for the music itself and the visuals.

No AI was used to record "Accelerando" or its vocals, the spokesperson said. The video includes "AI-generated elements" that were selectively incorporated into a wider VFX process involving more than 70 artists and production professionals.

"Accelerando" is a song that describes our world careening into a tech-forward, apocalyptic state. Its video puts that unease on screen. The camera circles Grimes as she moves through fantastical landscapes, including war-torn scenes and forests with mythical creatures, before landing on the singer and several dancers in a blue-screen studio.

Then, a long credit sequence rolls, highlighting how many humans were involved in the creation of the music video.

More than 70 professionals — makeup artists, dancers, a choreographer, and production team members — contributed to the production over two to three months, a spokesperson for Grimes told Business Insider. That includes multiple "AI artists," according to the credits.

To make the music video, production used AI as a "minor complementary production tool," her spokesperson told Business Insider.

"Reducing months of work by such a talented group of creatives to a minor complementary production tool that still required substantial human creativity to bring to fruition not only discredits the artists behind it, but creates a trivial narrative that misses the real story entirely," the spokesperson said when asked for more detail about the contributions from the credited AI artists.

AI has become highly controversial in the US — and a potential minefield for music artists and other creators who use it. Business Insider has reported on several content creators whose followers revolted in the comment sections when they acknowledged their use of AI. Grimes' music video is notable for its emphasis on the human talent involved, including AI artists, and the extent it goes to remind viewers of that.

Grimes has expressed complicated feelings about AI.

In 2023, she said she'd split royalties for AI art generated with her voice. The same year, the artist partnered with AI toy company Curio to make an interactive, spaceship-shaped plushie called Grok (which was not affiliated with the AI chatbot from her former partner, Elon Musk, that bears the same name). In a conversation with Interview Magazine, published in April, she said she's been writing poetry about AI's creation.

"I was thinking about how everyone is like, 'We're building gods,'" she said. "I'm like, 'Why do you automatically assume you're so much lesser? You're literally responsible for creating AI.'"

"Human life is very frail and time is very long. But I'd hope, if we had good relations with AI, they would take our DNA and make more of us when things get more hospitable."

Grimes has been adamant that the human team behind her new music video should be credited with the work.

"For 'Accelerando,' the live-action sequences were filmed entirely against a blue screen, featuring real performers, physical elements, and practical ground textures," her spokesperson said, while saying the video used other standard video-editing tech, like CGI.

"AI was selectively incorporated as a supplementary tool within this much larger, artist-driven VFX pipeline, rather than serving as a replacement for the creative or technical work," the spokesperson said. "The production process was intricate, labor-intensive, and fundamentally dependent on the creative judgment, technical expertise, and craftsmanship of the artists involved," they added.

During an onstage interview with Fortune in June, Grimes said that AI didn't create music for the coming album. On Friday, the singer posted on X, saying that she did use some AI lyrics for the song "Deepseek." It "contains opinions and lyrics from Deepseek," she wrote, in reference to the popular Chinese AI model.