Is AI Destroying Music? A Country Star's Dire Warning

0:00I'm Greg Jarrett. I'm Sandra Smith. I'm Charles Payne and this is The Fox News rundown. Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. I'm Dave Anthony. There is a lot of promise for artificial intelligence and a lot of worry about it teaching our kids or taking our jobs. It's even writing our music. That is happening more and more and so big and rich. We wrote a song about it. Hello AI. We're telling this program, you're not human. You can't give your heart to Jesus. You've got no soul to burn and hell. How long before you try to take the place of God himself? I'm Lucas Tomlinson. Before 9-11, change the world one Navy commander, Saul the Threat Coming, how the attack on the USS Cole for shadowed a quarter century of warfare. And Al-Qaeda as a non-state, sponsored, terrorist group had declared war against the United States. 11 months later, our nation paid a tragic price because we as a nation did not understand

1:05or appreciate the threat that they represented. And I'm Joe Conchett. I've got the final word and the Fox News rundown. Artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger part of our world now. This is bigger than the internet. This is a revolution. And President Trump is urging us to embrace it as he pushes to beat China in advancements, touting all the good AI can do. You know, we're coming up with things medically that we wouldn't have maybe in a hundred years. But there is also concern from data centers to education to the workforce and all that fear is getting louder in the music business. And country star is big and rich just released a song about it. Hello. rhythm plus frequency plus word maker record. Hey, you can rip a cheap recording but let's see you pay it live.

2:14Hey, tell me where your soul goes when we cut your power line. And so as you can hear, it is not an ode to AI. It's a challenge to it. This is quite a subject, not something I ever anticipated being a problem in the music industry. John Rich co wrote Hello AI for the award winning duo Big and Rich. You have multiple number one country billboard chart albums. But I would say right now it is number one. It is the number one issue we're dealing with. So every day it's between seven and 10 million songs per day. Wow. Or being generated through AI currently on the download platforms and streaming services. It's about 44% of all music that's being streamed or downloaded is AI generated. That is that big. Unbelievable to think that it's gotten that big and so fast. And so there are these lawsuits.

3:16And Thropic has been at the heart of this. The issue for a lot of this music is how they're generating it, right? How AI is taught, correct? Right. Yeah. So copyright laws in America are very clear. It says only a human being can own a copyright. So for instance, if I write a song, I then register that song with BMI or ASCAP and we register that copyright, which means it is my property, just like your car is your property or your house is your property. It's called intellectual property. So I obtain a copyright. That then means that those lyrics and that melody belong to me. And if another human being plagiarizes my song, they steal a piece of it. They steal the melody. They steal some of the lyrics and put it into their own song. I then can take them to court, sue them, give them a cease and desist, and they will not be allowed to monetize the music they've created off of my work that they plagiarized.

4:22It is a iron clad statute and has been in place for many, many, many decades. The copy, right, laws. However, if a computer program, if an AI program does the exact same thing and plagiarizes my music and everybody else's music, because that's the only thing it has to train on, initially, is human authored content. It can cobble together its own recording through a human being giving it props, going through it could say, hey, I want it to sound like a big and rich song using Tim McGraw style lyrics, using Rolling Stone drum beats with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it'll spit out a song in about 60 seconds. That's crazy. It's training off of the work that the human authors did, yet the human authors never get credit for that because there's no way to trace it back. There's also another inherent problem. Since AI cannot own a copyright, then how can an AI generated song be officially registered

5:27and accounted for through the copyright laws of the United States? The answer is it can't be. So in my opinion and all the other writers here in Nashville and in other genres as well, is that it should be illegal to monetize AI generated music because it cannot own a copyright. You cannot track what it trained off of and who's being ripped and plagiarized. And because of that monetizing, it isn't effective legal. So we have lawsuits, but do you think since you said it should be illegal, you want Congress to get involved, it sounds like. I do want Congress to get involved, no matter fact I've been speaking with Representative Tim Berchett about this for the past couple of weeks. And you know, being a Tennessee congressman, he's very close to the world of music. And he agrees. He looked at the situation as well and he said, you're right, AI cannot own a copyright. So therefore, how can it legally monetize anything that it has created? I said, that is the baseline question.

6:28So think about Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox into infinity. And there's no way to ever trace it back. You know, throughout this process of Hello AI being out in the general public, I've had people ask me, well, has it happened? Like has a AI generated song actually become a hit song? And the answer is, yes, there's one really great example in AI generated song called Walk My Walk in July of 2025. So over a year ago, became the number one most downloaded song in the United States. Was it a good song? Did you like it? It was it. It was it sounded AI to me, you know, but it was obviously people liked it. They went and downloaded it at your point where it was number one. So all that money that that AI generated song earned, where did that money go? Because AI can't own a copyright. So did it go to the AI company? Did it go to the person who put the prompts in? Where did it go?

7:28You can't track it. You can't trace it. And the authors that were ripped off to create Walk My Walk, who are those authors? We don't know because AI is coming through the entire body of human work. Do you see the problem on how to account for this? It's impossible. Yeah. So you and Kenny, you sat down and how long did it take you to write Hello AI? And did you have fun with it? I mean, it sounds great. Yeah. We took our time. We generally will write a song within three or four hours. This one we spent a couple of weeks thinking about it because it's such an interesting subject. I mean, normally when you're writing a song, you're not speaking to an inanimate object like AI. Right. But the song is direct. It is us speaking to the program. We're telling this program, you're not human. It says, you can't give your heart to Jesus. You've got no soul to burn in hell. How long before you try to take the place of God himself? Apocalyptic algorithmic revelation time.

8:30Prepare that self or battle. Prepare that self to die. American creators invented the genres of music that the entire world now enjoys and has created their own subgenres of a lot of what we've done, not computers, humans. That takes talent. It takes a lifetime of work to get good enough at being a creator to write songs to the level that it would impact the world. And we think about the Beatles, for instance, think about John Fogarty, think about Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, who we just lost. AI programs are ripping through all of their catalogs, cobbling together new recordings that cannot be copyrighted, but are being monetized to the tune of 44% of all streaming and all downloads. You know, in your industry and your business, people are influenced all the time. They borrow maybe a thought or an idea, a melody, people of course going on trial for play trees.

9:30Even Led Zeppelin had to go to trial for over Starward to Heaven. What's different between that and now? The difference between that and now is that AI is so pervasive and anybody can do it now, anybody literally can go on Suno, for instance, and in 60 seconds, it will spit out a song and then you can take that song and upload it to iTunes or Spotify and start making money on it. And so it's so big that where do you begin? How do you, can you whack a mole, seven million songs a day? Of course not. We have the charts and you mentioned that song that went number one. Can we keep those songs off the charts and try to not have them make money on it? Well, you're asking a great question and I will tell you that Australia just three or four days ago made a statement that we will no longer allow AI generated music to appear on our national music charts. So they're not allowing it to happen. You've got multi-billion dollar lawsuits now being waged from publishers, record labels

10:35and others against these AI companies, which is fine, but that's not going to fix the problem either. Law suits are not going to fix this. What's going to fix this is it being made illegal to monetize these tracks. In the song, you guys, you can rip a cheap recording. Let's see you play it live, right? That's a great chorus. It's a great one. Yeah, but there is, I mean, why can't people go to see a show? It's like a DJ and they're playing AI generated music. Why can't that happen? Well, it's already happening. It is happening. When we say see you play it live, you can rip a cheap recording now. Let's see you play it live. When human beings stand on a stage and grab their instruments and walk up to a microphone, AI can't do that. AI will never be able to do that. The song even says, it says you'll never love. You'll never laugh. You'll never know what it's like to have a newborn baby in your arms. The flames of freedom in your heart. You'll never know right from wrong.

11:36You're just a mockingbird with a stolen song. You'll never breathe the breath of life. You'll never really be alive. Hello, AI. That's really good. It must be really proud of that song. That's really good. Well, you know, we're speaking to AI as an inferior parasite that line, you're just a mockingbird with a stolen song. You're only able to create things on the backs of the actual humans that did it originally with their own original God-given talent and thought and created process. You know, it's not just your industry. A lot of people are worried their jobs will be taken by artificial intelligence someday. Do you think if nothing is done, your industry is in jeopardy? It's in jeopardy right now. That's why you see multi-billion dollar lawsuits trying to slow this down. At some point, the songwriters, the artists, the record labels, the publishers, their income to keep them in business comes from streaming and downloads. It comes from people spending money on that music to listen to it.

12:39Well, if AI takes up to vast majority, which is at 44% right now, what are you losing at that point? You're losing the income stream that feeds the companies that sign the new talent, that sign that new, that new singer, that new songwriter, to let them go forward and create. There won't be budgets in the future to sign human beings because AI has taken the entire pie for itself. Well, if you haven't heard it, it's hell away AI. You can find it on the streaming services from Big and Rich. John Rich, co-wrote the song as a human being with a pencil and it's great to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us. Flesh and blood and bone and a pencil wrote this song. That's the first line of the song. I appreciate you letting me talk about it. Thanks John, take care. Thanks man. See you down the road. Yes sir.

13:51We continue our week-long remembrance of the September 11th attacks that took place 25 years ago this Friday. Those attacks led to the global war on terror an American-led military campaign to go on the offensive against terrorist groups and the regimes that harbored them, most notably al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The day after the attacks present, George W. Bush warned the American people about the threat the country was facing. The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war. This will require a country to unite instead of a fast determination and resolve. Freedom and democracy are under attack. The American people need to know we're facing a different enemy than we have ever faced. Less than a month later, on October 7th, 2001, President Bush announced the beginning of military operations in Afghanistan. The first of many U.S.-led conflicts targeting terrorists.

14:54But the threat of terrorism wasn't new before 9-11. In fact, even the mastermind behind the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people, some of bin Laden, was already on the radar of U.S. intelligence and the military, especially for Navy Commander Kirk Lippold. He was commanding officer of the USS Cole on October 12th, 2000. On suicide terrorists, from Al Qaeda exploded a small boat alongside the destroyer as a refueled in the port of Aden and Yemen. Seventeen sailors aboard were killed nearly 40. We're injured. The FBI and the U.S. intelligence community determined the attack was planned and executed by Al Qaeda. On January 19th, 2001, President Clinton's outgoing U.S. defense secretary, William Cohen, discussed America's need to be more vigilant against terrorism. We must constantly search for and find the so-called seams in our force protection plans before our enemies do. And in the case of Cole, we did not do so. 25 years after 9-11, the threat of global terrorism is still very real.

15:54But to Commander Lippold, it was that deadly attack on the USS Cole that forced shadowed the decades to come. What we did not understand as a nation is that Al Qaeda as a non-state, sponsored, terrorist group had declared war against the United States. And we were unwilling to extend that kind of military power to put it to bed. Tired U.S. Navy Commander Kirk Lippold is the president of Lippold Strategies LLC, an author of Frontburner. Al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole. And so we had already suffered through World Trade Center I, co-bar towers. The embassy bombings in Dar Slam, Tanzania, Nairobi, Kenya in 1998. And then you had the attack on Cole killing 17 of my sailors, wounding 37. And essentially I lived through two administrations, the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, who did nothing in response. It infuriated bin Laden. And 11 months later, our nation paid a tragic price because we as a nation did not understand

16:56or appreciate the threat that they represented. I mentioned co-bar towers and the other attacks. Earlier in your career, you were off the coast of Beirut when U.S. forces went into Lebanon. It was very controversial in the Reagan White House at the time. In 1982, George Schultz was a hawk. He wanted the forces there, Cap Weinberger, the defense secretary at the time, the joint chiefs did not want to put troops inside Beirut. Of course, it was a suicide bombing at the hands of Hezbollah, getting their funding in direction from Iran, responsible for killing 241 American service members, the vast majority, U.S. Marines. Do you think the U.S. government has underestimated the threat from Iran in the years since? Absolutely. When you look back at Iran, they have been killing Americans since the early 80s. When you look at Colonel Higgins, who was killed in Lebanon when he was serving in a UN mission there, when you look at the fact that I was in the embassy in Beirut in April of 1983, and then a few days later, literally they blew the face off, killing 17 Americans, a number

18:00pretty sensitive to me. And then that fall in October 1983, we would lose 241 Marines and Navy personnel in the Beirut barracks bombing, including unfortunately a Naval Academy classmate of mine, Dave Nair. So Iran has been killing Americans for decades. And unfortunately, the United States has treated all of these proxy terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and the world through the eyes of a criminal event, rather than an actual declaration of war from the countries who sponsor them, financially give them safe haven, allow them to train, plan, and actually conduct these terrorist attacks. So I think the United States under the Trump administration is making the decision, we are no longer going to do that. If you're a state sponsor of terrorism, we are going to hunt you down and we're going to hold not only dem accountable, but the governments as well. Schiber, going back to 9-11, what will you be remembering most this week? The most thing in a remember is I look back on that day and I had actually been coordinated

19:00with a requirement and I was up in the CIA getting briefed by a great American, the assistant director for collections guy named Charlie Allen. And after an hour and a half of getting briefed about what the CIA knew before, during and after the attack on USS Cole, he'd asked me what I thought and I said, I'm going to be honest with you sir, America doesn't understand. I believe it is going to take a seminal event probably in this country where hundreds if not thousands died before Americans realize that we are a war with this guy meeting Bidlotton. 20 minutes after I said that, the first plane hit the North Tower and I was literally leaving the headquarters when the plane hit the South Tower and I spent the rest of the day out there. For those that are in the DC area, they understand 395 main artery in and out of DC and boundary channel drive at the Pentagon watching the building burn because the Pentagon had been attacked itself. And so consequently, it really solidified to me the costs that if the United States does

20:01not react to the threat of terrorism and countries who support it, we will continue to pay a price in the future and it really doesn't matter whether it is through the drugs, whether it is through actually attacked, through waterborne or vehicleborne improvised explosive devices, terrorism has to be ruthlessly stopped anywhere around the world. And yet dealing with terrorism for the past 25 years, there's some that argue we took our eye off China and Russia. How do you prevent the next terrorist attack but also prevent a war with a major power? I really don't think we took our eye off of them. I think we just extended a degree of trust that went far beyond what they should have had. And again, it's not comes down to trust but verify like President Reagan said what I really think that comes down to is look at their actions, look at what China is engaged in today. They are not a competitor. They are not an adversary. They are in fact the enemy because when you look at how they are attacking the United

21:04States and cyber, when you look at the fact that every drone flying from Iran slides with the Chinese engine today, China is enabling the killing of Americans and they are challenging our forces around the world again. While Iran may have proxies in Hamas has blown the hootie rebels, China is using Iran on a strategic level as a proxy for waging war against the United States. And that has to stop. And I just hope that when President Trump meets with presidency, he in fact calls him out, shows him the intelligence that we have, demonstrates to him that we know what's going on and what their country is doing and it needs to stop even with the economic ties that bind us together for the foreseeable future. We have to continue to work to start cutting those ties and make China pay the economic price first and hopefully we can avoid that conflict in the South China Sea. And just going back to where you were on 9-11, as you answered that question, it couldn't help to think you were at CIA headquarters, those that don't know that's in northern Virginia

22:05and Langley, not far from the Pentagon and you had just given a briefing warning about al-Qaeda, warning about Osama bin Laden, warning about a catastrophic attack and you said it happened 20 minutes later when the first airliner hit the North Tower. Yeah, I did. I mean, I will be honest with you, Luke, is that that was one of those moments where as I was driving down to the Pentagon, I knew our nation is so warm and it was a very tough moment for me because I had been in command of a ship and 17 sailors had died under my watch. I'm the accountable officer. And when I look now that my nation is under attack, I was questioning and wondering to myself, what could I have said, what could I have done, what more could I have done in pounding on the desk to make the leadership of our nation understand the threat that al-Qaeda represented. And at the end of the day, I will always live with that, but this is why I am so hardened and demanding that our nation no longer engage in this proportional response that we no longer

23:10tolerate these types of attacks. When you kill an American anywhere in the world, the United States should have an obligation to find out who did it and why hunt them down and make them pay that price along with the governments who enabled it. Any more thoughts with 9-11? When you think of 25 years or at least 20 plus years in the war on terrorism, US military paid a price. 7,000 service members have been killed in action, prosecuting the war. Some might argue the terrorists won. We lost 3,000 Americans on 9-11. We lost 7,000 prosecuting the war. What do you say to those critics? Who won the war on terrorism? I think the United States is still winning the war on terrorism. It is something that is going to go on for a long time because it's ideologically driven. I think the United States reacted properly in how we set up not only government institutions, but how the military went over there. At the end of the day, Lucas, for me, we're going to still continue to wage this fight,

24:14but we are waging that for those 3,000 Americans on 9-11. My hearts go out on this 25th anniversary, just like it went out to the families of my 17 sailors just year on R-25th anniversary, that I want them to understand that their loved ones are in the embrace of God, that they, in fact, are being cared for, that they are watching over their families today, and that the heroism displayed on 9-11, whether it was at the Twin Towers, at the Pentagon, or in Shanksville before that flight went in. That is serving as a source of inspiration today, and that we will continue to wage the fight necessary to overcome terrorism, but those families need to know that their loved ones did not die in vain, that they will always be remembered by us, that their names will be read and never forgotten, and that memorial in downtown DC at the Pentagon and at Shanksville serve as lasting testaments, that we as a nation will never forget what happened on 9-11.

25:18We will certainly skip a one major piece of evidence that the U.S. did win, is there has been another major attack like it since, and certainly a reminder when you talk about beefing up and bolstering U.S. forces to make sure it doesn't happen again. Any final thoughts on this 25th anniversary, week of 9-11? I think for me is, is Lucas, that the opportunity that I get to go on shows like yours and be able to speak to Americans through the lens of Fox News is the greatest privilege and honor, and to me it's also responsibility to be able to keep Americans informed and tell them, these are the threats that our nation is facing. This is how I believe we should challenge them, and that I hope that the administrations both with President Trump and those in the future recognize those threats and do what's necessary to keep our nation and its people safe. Thank you so much for joining us, that's retired Navy Commander Kirk Lippold.

26:21Skipper thank you very much, go Navy. Thank you Lucas, go Navy beat Army. We thank Commander Lippold for joining us today, you can hear more from him in our eight part podcast series Fox News rewind 9-11, and hear more exclusive stories, marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, listen to the Fox News rundown evening edition every night this week. We can review the Fox News rundown on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Dallas will host its first ever Republican midterm convention this week.

27:23Now this will differ from typical national conventions because delegates will not be voting on party nominees, but nevertheless will this move the needle for Republicans as they try to hold the House and the Senate. Hi everyone, the Republican party has to own the affordability argument because what we're seeing in every interview, every social media post is Democrats claiming they know how to make things more affordable. They have all the answers, they have the plan, and it's up to the GOP candidates to remind people that under Joe Biden during the first two years of the auto pen administration when the party controlled the House and the Senate. Inflation shot to north of 9%, the highest since Raiders of the Lost Ark was a thing while the party ran through that boondoggle of a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, which as President Biden at the time even admitted had nothing to do with lowering inflation, but

28:28was simply a climate change bill. Okay, so Republicans have to remind voters about where we are right now as an economy, unemployment around 4%. Historically, that's a very good thing. More than 350,000 federal worker jobs have been cut. No tax on tips, that's a thing. No tax on social security, that's a thing. The Trump tax cuts are now permanent tax cuts that Democrats all oppose, all thanks to the big beautiful bill. Vagias continue to go up. We have a Dow Jones breaking all time highs along with the S&P and the NASDAQ. So compared to where we were in 2021, 2022, 2023, we're in a much better place as a country and things are moving in a much better direction moving forward. Republicans need to hammer that point home during this convention this week because Democrats, if they take back the House, you will have Donald Trump in impeachment in perpetuity.

29:32I'm Joe Consha.