James Smith, the frontman of Yard Act, doesn’t mince his words. When I ask if he’s listened to any AI-generated songs he says: “The first AI song I heard was the AIsis/Oasis Lost Tapes album, which was crap.” This was a “lost” Oasis album created by AIsis last year, a band fronted by an AI-modelled Liam Gallagher. The real Liam called it “better than all the other snizzle out there” while his brother Noel said: “These f***ing idiots have clearly got too much time on their hands.”

But as Smith, 33, points out, that doesn’t mean the quality of AI music won’t improve rapidly. “If you think about what AI is capable of now compared to what it was capable of six months ago and then you project that onto what it will be capable of in six months’ time, then it’s happening extremely fast.” He offers a point of comparison: “Much like climate change doesn’t feel like it’s happening even if you see it on the news because the piece of grass you’re stood on isn’t on fire, the same thing is happening now.”

This is why he and the rest of the members of his post-punk band from Leeds have signed an open letter asking developers to pledge they won’t deploy AI that will undermine or replace artists or deny them fair compensation. More than 200 musicians are co-signatories, including stars such as Billie Eilish, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Katy Perry. “It definitely felt better to sign it and add our voice to the growing number expressing concern,” Smith explains. What should be done, he adds, is to “put the brakes on and start a conversation about what it is capable of and how fast it will evolve … once the damage is done, it will be too late.”

As a rock musician, Smith accepts he is not the most vulnerable — yet. “Commercially successful pop is at the forefront because it has the widest audience and therefore it’s the first place that tech companies will go to draw data.” Nonetheless, he says, “everyone should be aware it will affect them”.

Smith has not yet heard his own voice or style used by AI bots. He says you would think “that’s so far off” as, even though Yard Act are very successful, they “are still pretty far down the ladder: the majority of people in the world don’t know who we are”. But, he emphasises, “once it’s an open shooting season, everything’s up for grabs and you can guarantee every artist on every level will be mined for something”.

The band’s music video director, James Slater, has used AI in the past to generate imagery. “I’ve seen great results from that,” Smith says. “But I know that he’s since backtracked and panicked by what he’s given to AI.”

Smith is far from a doom merchant and insists he is not anti-AI. Part of this is pragmatism. “You always have to work with it, never against it,” he says. “Working against technological advances never works because you can’t stop it.” But there’s also an open-mindedness to his approach. “Amidst the fear and the concern I do have genuine excitement as well.” Ultimately it’s about “collaboration rather than opposition. I always believe that.”

Yard Act will be at Glastonbury, Truck, Tramlines, Y Not, Victorious and Forwards festival this summer, yardactors.com