The “Fast Five” star defended an AI-generated track: “What HUMAN writer and SINGER IS gonna write a song that’s better than this??”

Bette Midler and Tyrese Gibson feud over AI-generated song: ‘Cultural genocide’

The “Fast Five” star defended an AI-generated track: “What HUMAN writer and SINGER IS gonna write a song that’s better than this??”

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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August 22, 2026 4:38 p.m. ET

Bette Midler; Tyrese Gibson. Credit:

Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty;  Monica Schipper/Getty

- Bette Midler shared an Instagram post denouncing the song “Celebrate Me,” which was made using AI platform Suno.

- Midler called AI music “cultural genocide” in a hashtag.

- Tyrese Gibson defended the track: “What HUMAN writer and SINGER IS gonna write a song that’s better than this??”

Bette Midler and Tyrese Gibson aren’t getting along.

The *Hocus Pocus *star posted an impassioned Instagram post denouncing the song “Celebrate Me” by IngaRose, which achieved widespread popularity on iTunes and was generated using the AI platform Suno.

“This song, currently on the charts, is AI generated,” she wrote in a post that included “Celebrate Me” as its featured audio.

“It’s a good song,” Midler opined, “created and sung by a machine that stole every lick, every riff, every thought, phrasing style, every choke in the voice, every sorrowful sound from thousands of human artists since the beginning of recorded music, with zero compensation for the artists on whom they trained the machine.”

She added, “This is #culturalgenocide.”

Bette Midler in New York City on June 2, 2025.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Gibson seems to be a big fan of the track, as he wrote a lengthy comment defending the song while criticizing human songwriters in the process.

“Ai isn’t going anywhere….” he commented. “Complain complain and it just makes it more popular…. This song is actually a great song.”

Though Gibson admitted, “I know it’s Ai,” he clearly didn’t mind the track’s synthetic origin because listeners are connecting to it on an emotional level. “So many are so many depressed, divorced, and discouraged 🫤,” he wrote. “This song has inspired even ME!!!!!! The last song that inspired me from a real artist that was ON MESSAGE was AUDRA DAY!!!”

Gibson continued, “What HUMAN writer and SINGER IS gonna write a song that’s better than this?? Don’t complain…. Just step your shhhhhhhh up….”

He concluded, “The world needs HOPE…..”

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** has reached out to representatives for Midler, Gibson, and Suno for comment.

EW also reached out to IngaRose’s Instagram account, which claims that the “artist” features “Human written lyrics” and “Real stories” with “Stems & arrangement refined using Suno.” The page also features an abundance of AI-generated imagery.

Other artists sided with Midler in the comments section of the post, including Natasha Bedingfield, who posited that the track “sounds like a lot of” Olivia Dean’s “voice was used” in the creation of the song. “So wrong,” she wrote.

Tyrese Gibson in Los Angeles on Aug. 17, 2026.

Amy Sussman/Getty

India Arie wrote, “its on the CHARTS😮 ugh”

Amy Sedaris added, “Yuck.”

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IngaRose has over 1.1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and “Celebrate Me” has over 23 million streams on the platform.

“Ingrid is a songwriter and human creator who writes from real life, real emotions, and lived experience,” the IngaRose bio on Spotify says. “Under the artist name IngaRose, she uses Suno as a creative tool to help bring her original songs to life. As a neo-soul storyteller, IngaRose transforms heartbreak, faith, healing, and personal growth into music that feels deeply personal and authentic.”

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