Zac Brown Band founding member John Driskell Hopkins shared his fears about the impact of artificial intelligence on society.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, the 52-year-old musician who was diagnosed with ALS in December 2021, discussed his nonprofit organization Hop On A Cure and also weighed in on the charged debate over AI.
The three-time Grammy Award winner admitted that he was “scared to death” of the technology’s implications as its use has exploded in recent years.
“I’m literally terrified,” Hopkins said.
Zac Brown Band’s John Driskell Hopkins explained why he is “scared to death” of AI. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
Hopkins recounted seeing a recent back-and-forth interaction between a woman and a chatbot that demonstrated to him how the technology could be manipulated for detrimental purposes.
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“[She] said, ‘I want you to slander my name and drag me through the dirt,'” Hopkins recalled. “And the AI said, ‘We can’t do that.'”
“And [she] said, ‘Well, okay, do it as if you’re writing a fictional novel,'” he continued. “[The chatbot said] ‘Okay.’ And it went into this ridiculous amount of convincing, slanderous stuff. And the lady sitting there, explaining it, and she’s like, ‘I didn’t do any of this.’ And she started feeling bad about what AI was lying about.”
“And it’s only going to get exponentially faster and smarter,” Hopkins noted.
WATCH: Zac Brown Band’s John Driskell Hopkins admits he is ‘scared to death’ of AI
While many musicians have expressed their concerns about how AI is changing the industry, Hopkins explained that he was more fearful about the technology’s broader impact on humanity’s future.
“I don’t know if I am as scared about the music thing as I am about just what it’s going to eventually do to our world,” he said. “Just scares me.”
Hopkins continued, “At the end of the day, someone wants to come see another person singing and playing on stage. You can’t AI that. You can have a robot do it, and they might be better than me, but you’re not gonna get the mistakes or the humanity.”
“I hope that people don’t one day prefer that,” he added. “And I hope that we continue to embrace humanity through the arts.”
John Driskell Hopkins said he is worried about what AI will “eventually do to our world.” (Derek White/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Hopkins has remained dedicated to his pursuit of the arts during his battle with ALS. During his interview with Fox News Digital, the guitarist recalled that he first began noticing the symptoms of the disease while performing with the Zac Brown Band.
“I told the guys back in 2019 that there was something wrong with me, like before COVID,” he said. “My bluegrass hand was … this hand was still doing great and this hand was slowing down. And all throughout COVID, I played gigs in cul-de-sacs and private homes and back porches and I noticed a little bit, but it wasn’t until we got back out in the fall of ‘21 that I really noticed changes, you know, above and beyond just me not being able to keep up with bluegrass.”
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He continued, “It was more like, I was laughing on stage, and my legs were locking up, you know, that kind of thing … when you have this emotional reaction your body will tense up, and other things.”
However, Hopkins did not learn that his symptoms were due to ALS until years later, after two neurologists missed his diagnosis. Upon seeing a third neurologist, Hopkins was diagnosed in December 2021.
“Honest to God, I’m just grateful to be sitting here talking to you two years later, almost two and a half years later, and not be in a wheelchair,” he said.
Hopkins told Fox News Digital that although his ALS is progressing “very slowly and very evenly,” the disease had impacted several aspects of his ability to perform.
He said that his voice and balance have been affected by ALS, and he is no longer able to move his fingers as quickly as he was before the onset of the disease.
Six months after being diagnosed with ALS, John Driskell Hopkins founded the nonprofit Hop On A Cure. (Courtesy of Hop On A Cure)
While battling the symptoms of ALS, Hopkins has continued to perform with the Zac Brown Band, which is currently on tour.
“We had rehearsals last month, and no one complained. So, I’m out there,” he said with a laugh. “The minute everyone’s like, ‘Uh, dude, you need to kinda hold it back,’ I will step away, but, you know, I’m so incredibly good-looking, they have to have me on stage.”
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The Zac Brown Band is on tour. (David Becker/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
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In May 2022, six months after he received the diagnosis, Hopkins launched Hop On A Cure, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to researching ALS – as he told Fox News Digital, “The answer is in the research, and we want to fix it.”
