He hid his face under a robot helmet for twenty years: Daft Punk’s co-founder explains why AI does not interest him
Half of the most influential electronic duo in history says the creative use of artificial intelligence does not interest him. He said it at Art Basel, talking to the president of arts at Chanel.
Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk has said that the creative use of artificial intelligence does not interest him.
Mixmag reports the comments. They were made in an interview with Yana Peel — President of Arts, Culture & Heritage at Chanel — at the Art Basel fair in Basel, Switzerland, back in June. The luxury brand posted the conversation on its YouTube channel on 29 July.
“I’m not really interested in the creative usage of artificial intelligence,” the musician said. “The most interesting part of the creative process is happening not at all on an intellectual level. Where you’re actually going through a process which is about understanding your feelings.”
The conversation was recorded live at Fondation Beyeler during the fair. In it Bangalter recalls the Centre Pompidou library that once introduced him and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo to Warhol and ‘Metropolis’, and the rave that pulled Daft Punk into being.
He goes on to the albums ‘Homework’, ‘Discovery’ and ‘Random Access Memories’, to ‘Get Lucky’ with Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder, and to his own turn towards orchestra and ballet: ‘Mythologies’ for the Bordeaux Opera and ‘Mirage’ with Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa.
Earlier the same summer at Art Basel, Bangalter made a surprise appearance at a no-phones party from the events platform art.klub — at the Messe Basel exhibition centre, on a custom modular set-up of drum machines and analogue synths.
He is far from the first musician to distance himself from AI. In 2025 the synth-pop veteran Gary Numan said the technology will “ultimately end mankind” and render musicians as replaceable as a cotton bud.
Daft Punk were founded in Paris in 1993 by Bangalter and de Homem-Christo. ‘Homework’ (1997) became the manifesto of French house, ‘Discovery’ (2001) one of the greatest dance albums of all time, and ‘Random Access Memories’ (2013) with ‘Get Lucky’ brought the duo their Grammys.
As ONE//FM reported earlier, Kavinsky died on 28 July — the Frenchman whose ‘Nightcall’ Guy-Manuel co-produced.
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