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“Don’t give up the fight,” the 20-some artists sang. Then they chanted even louder: “Pause AI!”
Under the shadow of Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture, the participants announced their movement against AI-generated music, tech companies and streaming platforms like Spotify, and demanded legal safeguards for their work against AI-generated copies.
They want their listeners’ help, too, and are planning a “blackout” of streaming platforms in late October, they said.
“We want policy that says: ‘This is fake music, and this is real music,’” said Melody Angel, a Bronzeville-based musician. “We should have the choice.”
The rally came amid a mounting fracas in the U.S. over generative AI.
In recent weeks, some leading AI firms have warned that their models’ coding abilities could foment humanity’s demise. Resource-intensive data centers powering AI have drawn pushback. President Donald Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has signaled a laissez-faire approach to regulating AI, even moving to rename it “super intelligence.”
At the same time, people’s use of the technology to generate videos, text and what opponents called other such “AI slop” has inundated the internet and enraged various segments of the public.
“Every day that we wait, garbage, artificial garbage, is polluting the creative waters of all of our careers,” said Jeannie Tanner, a musician based in the Andersonville neighborhood. “It becomes harder and harder to find human-made music. So what can you do? Thumbs-down that crap. Get it out of your feeds. We don’t need it.”
Streaming platforms have been slow to combat AI fakes of real artists and have sometimes welcomed AI-generated music. Tools to generate music abound. The leader of one such platform, Suno, drew fire for saying in 2025 that most people don’t enjoy the time they spend making music.
Tim Corpus, a composer, read aloud those remarks to his fellow musicians. They booed immediately.
“You know what?” Corpus added. “It is hard. It does take a lot of time and practice.”
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Many of the musicians focused on the fact that, by definition, AI generates music based on existing music scraped from across the web. They believe that, as a result, AI-generated music steals from decades of recording work.
“Being a musician is an earned position,” Ugochi Nwaogwugwu, a Far South Side-based artist, said to cheers. “I never thought I would have to say this.”
The musicians wore black T-shirts that read, in bold lettering: “Human music only. Press pause on AI.” Some clutched umbrellas as they rallied under the pitter-patter of Thursday’s rain.
Participants hinted that the rally marked the beginning of a prolonged global campaign among artists and musicians, perhaps based in Chicago, to regulate AI in music and support human artists. And they declared their next step will be a “music platform blackout” later this month.
During that blackout, planned for Oct. 26 and 27, the group wants listeners to avoid using streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.
They hope the blackout will demonstrate the power of human artistry, a theme they celebrated during the roughly half-hour rally.
“AI doesn’t know what it feels like to have a baby,” said jazz musician Tammy McCann. “But Stevie Wonder does. ‘Isn’t She Lovely.’”