A few weeks ago on the 70th NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, a hologram of Misora Hibari performed a new song created using her voice and AI, in honor of the 30th anniversary of her death. Reactions to this use of technology were mixed, but Yamashita Tatsuro has one word for it: “blashpemy.”

Tatsuro expressed his thoughts on the matter on January 19, on his TOKYO FM show, “Yamashita Tatsuro no Sunday Songbook.” He opened the show with “Inochi no Uta”, the new single by his wife, Mariya Takeuchi. He expressed thanks for the single hitting #1 on Oricon, due to Kohaku, which Mariya debuted on a few weeks ago with the song. He then moved onto the topic of “AI Misora Hibari.”

He asked the show’s listeners what they thought of “AI Misora Hibari”, and then said that he wasn’t a fan of it, not as a music show peformance nor as a CD release. He added that he didn’t want an AI version of himself made, nor one of Ohtaki Eiichi, his mentor. “In short, it’s blasphemy,” he said.

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