A Christian hip-hop artist is pushing back against Forrest Frank's concerns about the rise of an artificial intelligence artist in the Christian music industry, insisting that God can use AI to "get [His] point across." 

In an Instagram post on Friday, Christian hip-hop artist and producer Derek Minor responded to Frank's video last week, which was highly critical of Solomon Ray topping the iTunes Christian music charts.

Ray is an AI persona created by Mississippi-based artist Christopher Jermaine Townsend, who performs under the stage name Topher. Minor, whose real name is Derek Laurence Johnson Jr., specifically addressed Frank's assertion that "AI don't have the Holy Spirit." 

"Here's the problem with that perspective. There [are] a lot of Christian songs that people love today that had people that weren't Christians write the songs, that helped with the songs or that weren't Christians that played guitar on the songs or bass or drums," he insisted. "What if the person that's using the AI is a Christian, they just love God and they use the tools to their advantage?" 

Minor believes that Christians could use AI to write and perform songs because "maybe they're not a talented artist, maybe they're not a talented writer, but they have taste, and they wanted to worship." In a caption accompanying the video, Minor maintained "the Ai conversation is complicated, but it's not 'spiritually complicated.'"

"It's the same as it's always been. Judge the artist by their fruit," he added. "The [Bible] says that gifts and callings come without repentance. There's people with terrible character that have made big Christian songs that people are moved by because God can use who or what [He] wants to get [His] point across. Even AI."

In his video last Wednesday, Frank reacted to Ray's Faithful Soul leading the iTunes charts as the top Christian album and his songs "Find Your Rest" and "Goodbye Temptation" emerging as the top two Christian songs. 

"At a minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it, so I think that's really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit," Frank said.

In his caption, Frank wrote: "I love progress & tools, but this one just doesn't sit right!"

Faithful Soul is still occupying the top spot on iTunes' Top 40 US Christian & Gospel albums as of Monday afternoon. Ray's "Find Your Rest" was occupying the No. 2 spot on iTunes' Top 40 US Christian & Gospel songs, while "Goodbye Temptation" fell to the eighth position. "God I'm Just Grateful" by Elevation Worship & Chandler Moore currently occupies the top spot.

Two additional songs by Ray, "Jesus and My Coffee" and "I Got Faith," are also included on the list, meaning that 10% of the songs featured on the Top 40 are from an artist created by AI. 

Created just under a month ago on Oct. 28, Ray's YouTube channel has over 15,000 subscribers as of Monday afternoon. A total of five albums featuring songs compiled by Ray, including Faithful Soul, are available on the AI artist's YouTube page. Ray is not to be confused with the rapper of the same name.

In response to Frank's video raising concerns about Ray's emergence, Townsend posted an Instagram video on Thursday, asserting that "nothing is morally or immorally right or wrong at this point" when it comes to incorporating AI into music. 

"No one is pulling out Scripture to ban it. It is really more of a preference. You cannot tell somebody's feelings and impact from music if it's authentic or fake [or] fraudulent," he said. "Who am I to say what God will or won't use to get the message His people need to them?"

Identifying himself as an "instrument" and Ray's work as an "extension" of his creativity, Townsend defended the music as "inspired by a Christian," although "it may not be performed by one."

"I am not sure why that really matters in the end," he said. 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-artist-reacts-to-forrest-franks-criticism-of-ai-singer.html