Taylor Swift and the AI revolution have a lot more in common than you might think
作者：By Joe Ciolli
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- Have you ever considered how similar Taylor Swift's career is to the ongoing AI revolution?
- No, seriously, there are several strong parallels.
- For starters, Swift is the brightest spot in a struggling music industry, while AI carries the whole stock market.
Picture an unstoppable force that swallows up everything around it: people, businesses… even entire geographies.
The value creation is immense. There's endless demand for spending, and entire new industries are constantly popping up in its wake.
I could very well be talking about artificial intelligence. But no. I'm instead referring to America's pop princess, Taylor Swift, who just unleashed a new album upon the world on Friday.
Swift and AI have a lot more in common than you might realize. Don't believe me? Consider the following:
Both are helping keep their spaces afloat
You know how your 401(k) is way up for the year? And how it was way up in 2024? You can thank the AI revolution for that. It's not an exaggeration to say that AI stocks — led by Nvidia, now the world's most valuable company — are pretty much singlehandedly keeping stocks at record highs.
Swift has enjoyed a similarly outsized impact on the music industry. In addition to her music routinely topping streaming and album-sales charts, her Eras tour was the highest-grossing in history, raking in $2 billion in ticket sales. At a time when most touring artists struggle to break even, Swift continues to thrive — and keeps lots of music-industry workers employed in the process.
A bubble that never ends?
There's been much hand-wringing about the current rally in stocks, focused on what many see as eye-wateringly lofty valuations, especially for AI names. No matter how you slice it, equities are historically expensive.
But there's a strong case for this so-called bubble in AI to continue for much longer. Basically, the predicted profit growth in the space unlocked by AI is expected to catch up, eventually rendering those alarming valuation metrics moot.
As for Swift, she's showing herself to be something of a pop-star unicorn by staying relevant and firmly A-list for an unprecedented stretch of time. She's been one of the most famous people on earth for 20 years. In the modern age, pop stars don't stay on top for that long, at least not in every facet of the gig.
Just ask Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, who have seen commercial drop-offs. Beyoncé's tours still do gangbusters business, but her albums aren't events like Swift's, and she doesn't make them nearly as often. Mariah Carey didn't make it out of the 90s, and even Madonna didn't enjoy a similar period of uninterrupted dominance. Like AI, Swift is showing herself to be a one-of-a-kind force upending traditionally held expectations.
Collaborations throw more chum in the water
Nothing gets the AI fanboys more fired up than a good, old-fashioned collaboration. Companies in the space carry massive valuations on their own. But when they link up, the market tends to lose its mind (in a good way). A high-profile example was the recent team-up between OpenAI and Nvidia, which sent the whole stock market soaring.
Swift has invigorated the narrative around her by switching up her collaborators. Her work with super-producer Jack Antonoff was credited with vaulting her into a new musical stratosphere. At one point, she took a mellow left turn by working with Aaron Dessner of The National, and her latest album was largely done by Max Martin, arguably the biggest pop producer of the modern generation. Each of these link-ups and reinventions inspired immense discussion amongst fans.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Swift's biggest collab of all: her relationship with and recent engagement to superstar NFL player Travis Kelce, which has brought her more media attention than her music in recent months.
High-profile beefs
The AI revolution has seen its fair share of fighting between tech titans, but no rivalry has flared up as much as the one between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The duo cofounded OpenAI years ago, and have since regularly traded barbs. At the center of the conflict is Musk's claim that Altman is improperly transforming OpenAI from an altruistic, purely nonprofit artificial generative intelligence lab into what his lawsuit calls "market-paralyzing gorgon."
Swift herself is certainly no stranger to beef. One song on her new album goes after fellow elite pop star Charli XCX, but her list of opponents stretches far longer. There was the "Bad Blood"-era Katy Perry feud. And who could forget her notorious MTV VMA kerfuffle with Kanye West, which stretched for years and eventually involved Kim Kardashian. She even re-recorded a bunch of her music after an executive she didn't like bought the rights to the originals.
You come at Taylor, you best not miss.
Environmental concerns
A major criticism of the rapid expansion of AI technology is how much computing power — and therefore electricity — it requires. Data centers are being built all across the US, ramping up power usage and reshaping geographic landscapes. (Check out BI's cool interactive map here).
As for Swift, a knock on her in recent years has been her use of private jets. Simply put, they use a lot of fuel, which isn't great for the environment. She seems to have heard the criticism, having downsized to one plane in 2024, but she's still flying.
While I understand why Swift uses a jet to get around — I can't promise I wouldn't do the same if afforded the same wealth — the environmental baggage is yet another parallel between her and AI.
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