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

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

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.

"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.

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"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.

"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.'"

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.