Dr. Dre, the legendary hip-hop producer, founder of the Aftermath record label and co-founder and CEO of Apple’s Beats, said he does not view artificial intelligence as a threat to music creation, comparing it to earlier innovations like synthesizers and drum machines.
“I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating,” Dre said in an interview published by the New York Times alongside his longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine. “It’s a new tool for creativity. Some people are afraid of learning new things.”
Dre said he uses AI technology in music “as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did.” Iovine noted that producer Timbaland is also experimenting with AI tools, adding that “there’s a lot of closet AI producers out there.”
The comments come as AI remains contentious in the music industry. Last week, indie music publisher Round Hill Music sued AI companies Suno and Anthropic for alleged copyright infringement. Suno has faced lawsuits from Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music, though it settled with WMG last year. Suno recently signed a licensing agreement with BMG.
Dre, 61, was named to Forbes’ 2026 Billionaires list with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. In 2014, he and Iovine sold Beats by Dre to Apple for more than $3 billion. In 2023, Dre sold music income streams and other assets to Shamrock Holdings and Universal Music Group for more than $200 million.
Source: Variety
