ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus Writes New AI-Assisted Musical

Björn Ulvaeus, the 80-year-old ABBA singer and co-founder of Pophouse Entertainment, is currently developing a musical with the assistance of artificial intelligence, describing himself as three-quarters through the project. He views AI as a powerful creative tool that acts like 'another songwriter in the room' with a vast reference frame, though he emphasizes AI's limitations, particularly its inability to write complete songs or strong lyrics. Ulvaeus uses AI to overcome creative blocks by prompting it for ideas and directions, often sifting through the AI's output to find inspiration. He insists that human talent and an intuitive sense of quality must guide the use of AI in music creation, highlighting the importance of 'inner direction' to separate valuable ideas from poor ones. Additionally, Ulvaeus advocates for fair compensation for human creators whose work is used to train AI models, comparing this to payment models in music streaming. This AI-assisted project follows his previous technological innovations, including the successful ABBA Voyage hologram show.