{"id":319449,"date":"2026-08-12T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319449\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:52:10","slug":"queens-brian-may-outraged-by-ai-generated-image-of-freddie-mercury-you-must-stop-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319449\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen\u2019s Brian May outraged by AI-generated image of Freddie Mercury: \u2018You must stop it now\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sir Brian May<\/a> has urged Andy Burnham to block AI \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late\u201d after being left outraged by an AI-generated image of his former Queen bandmate Freddie Mercury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The British guitarist decided to check what Meta AI would create when he asked it what the cover of Queen\u2019s 1980 record The Game looked like. <\/p>\n

He was unimpressed with the result, writing on Instagram: \u201cThis is what it gave me ! Good job, eh ? So this is the kind of intelligence that will soon be ruling the world ??! Well, great. Maybe this is the time to realise WE ACTUALLY DON’T NEED AI !!!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SirSir Brian May has rallied against the use of AI (Getty)<\/p>\n

Highlighting the seriousness of his post, he added: \u201cI believe the price we are about to pay for this ‘inevitable’ development is way too high. We must not allow these hideous Data Centres to be built in the UK. They will destroy our beautiful country, like they are already destroying beautiful America.<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Andy \u2013 you must stop it now. Before it’s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

May\u2019s post comes as a number of artists speak out both in favour and against AI.<\/p>\n

In May, 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry told the Press Association<\/a> that she felt artists should \u201cembrace\u201d AI while picking up the special international award at the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cTo me, it\u2019s just another tool that has shown up to make people\u2019s life easier in some way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said earlier, like microwaves, when microwaves showed up, everybody thought it was the end of making dinner, and mums were just going to throw it in there, and poof, we were going to be in the Jetsons with this powder that turns into a turkey for Thanksgiving, and it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just this is the future, we have to embrace it, because if we try to run from the future, then we\u2019re running from solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

But dance music producer Nia Archives said AI music \u201cwon\u2019t last\u201d while speaking at the launch of the Mercury Prize<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI don\u2019t know if AI music will last to be honest with you, I think it\u2019s quite like a fleeting technology moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Queen, Sir Brian had six UK number one singles and 10 UK number one albums. Some of the band\u2019s best-known songs include \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d, \u201cKiller Queen\u201d, \u201cCrazy Little Thing Called Love\u201d and We Are The Champions.<\/p>\n

Meta AI has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-319449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}