Grimes, a musician and producer who has openly embraced AI in her work, was honored at the TIME100 AI Impact Awards in Dubai.
In 2023, Grimes garnered attention for her initiative allowing fans to use AI to create music using her voice, promising support to participants.
The TIME100 AI Impact Awards, held on Monday in Dubai, recognized Grimes alongside Anima Anandkumar (California Institute of Technology), Refik Anadol (visual artist), and Arvind Krishna (IBM CEO, chairman, and president). The event also included a performance by Emirati singer Arqam Al Abri.
During her acceptance speech, Grimes, quoting Arthur C. Clarke, likened advanced technology to magic. She used the platform to acknowledge several innovators, referring to them as “real-life wizards” and celebrating their achievements.
Among those Grimes highlighted were David Holz (Midjourney founder), a technologist utilizing AI to understand whale communication, and an entrepreneur who started by building silicon chips in his parents’ garage. [Names redacted due to incompleteness in original text]
Grimes also praised a singer-songwriter [Name redacted due to incompleteness in original text] who developed a website to identify AI-generated art and a tool enabling artists to remove their work from training datasets. Grimes observed the significance of this tool, noting widespread anxiety surrounding AI’s impact on art and the tendency to overlook positive developments in the field.
Grimes emphasized the need for recognizing achievements in technology and celebrating successes amidst concerns about its potential negative impacts, stating that many are working towards positive change and are making progress.
The TIME100 AI Impact Awards Dubai was presented by the World Government Summit and the Museum of the Future.