AI has some concerning implications for our tech-driven future—but, like a lot of concerning new advances in technology, it’s also being used for memes. Like Plankton from Spongebob sing Maneskin’s Beggin’ with shocking conviction.
Few internet personalities have become as aware of this trend as Jschlatt. He’s an influencer, gaming YouTuber, and streamer who has around 4 million subscribers on YouTube and 2 million followers on Twitch at the time of writing. He’s now also (to his own astonishment) become the voice of over a hundred AI covers.
Jschlatt laid out the issue in a recent video: “It pains me to say this, but they’re really fucking good.” To make a point of how pervasive his AI covers are—which he observes “are like their own genre now”—Jschlatt enters “AI Cover” into the search bar. “There’s the Minecraft Villager, we got Obama, we got Squidward, we got Biden and Trump again, and then there’s me!”
“Why the fuck am I there?! Why did you people get access to this incredible new tool … and then decide to put me on it?!” The numbers themselves are absurd too, one AI cover of Ballin’ by Mustard reaping 1.7 million views from the public. “They all have so many views, there’s like a playlist with 150 of ’em.”
Despite the fact that a lot of these covers clearly have “AI” in the title, Jschlatt says that he’s “getting texts from people I haven’t spoken to in years telling me I have a beautiful singing voice”. There’s even a meme—which Jschlatt sends-up at the end of the video—where his fans will speak about him like he’s one of the late greats, mourning his loss in the comments. The lore is both staggering and clearly out of control.
So, what’s a man to do? Do it himself. “You think I can’t do Bo Burnham? You think I can’t do fuckin’ Frank Sinatra?” he asks, before revealing that he’s sung a full cover. Having listened to it myself—Jschlatt’s got some pipes. The high notes in Sinatra’s portfolio are no joke, and while it’s nowhere near as uncannily perfect as its AI counterpart, the roughness adds a whole lot of charm.
It’s a genuinely impressive piece of work. Jschlatt mentions that “I was gonna do a whole fuckin’ album of this shit, but then I realised—oh, it’s taken me hours to hit a high note. I only did a song.” Still, let the records show: he took the blows, and did it his way.
