分类： entertainment

For years, British singer-songwriter Samuel Smith crafted original Americana music with a guitar permanently in his hands. But after a 2020 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis left him unable to play his instrument consistently due to the neurological disorder’s progressive symptoms, he turned to a surprising tool: generative artificial intelligence, to keep his creative practice alive. Now, with the release of his second full-length album *The Art of Letting Go*, Smith is opening up about how AI has unlocked new possibilities for artists living with disabilities — even as it remains one of the most divisive issues in the modern music industry.

Parkinson’s disease, which causes progressive nerve damage, commonly leads to muscle tremors, stiffness and chronic fatigue that erode fine motor control, skills critical for playing string instruments like guitar. By the time Smith began work on his 8-track album more than a year before its release, his ability to play had deteriorated significantly. Faced with the choice of abandoning songwriting entirely or adapting to his new physical limitations, he chose to adapt.

For his instrumental track *Horizon*, Smith leaned on popular AI music generation platforms Suno and Udio to translate his creative vision into shareable demos for the session musicians recording the final studio track. His process begins with humming rough melodic ideas into his smartphone, then uploading those recordings to the AI tools alongside text prompts that detail the track’s desired instrumentation, mood and musical style. He stressed that the AI-generated demos are never used in the final master of his songs; instead, they act as a communication tool to show professional players exactly what he hears in his head, when he can no longer demonstrate it on guitar. Producing a demo that matches his distinct artistic voice often takes dozens of attempts and extensive manual editing, Smith explained.

Unlike the narrative of AI replacing human creators that dominates much industry debate, Smith frames the technology as an enabling tool, not a replacement. “AI is not replacing anything for me. It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics; AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music; AI does not create my music,” he said. “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.’”

The album, recorded in Nashville with a roster of award-winning roots and bluegrass musicians including 16-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas, banjo artist Alison Brown and Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage, includes one particularly poignant moment: a guitar duet between Smith and Lage on *Horizon*. After months of being unable to play, Smith had a 10-minute window of reduced symptoms in the studio that let him record his part, a moment he calls the “last breath of my guitar playing.” Working alongside musicians he has admired for decades, he said, was an extraordinary, career-defining experience. Smith released his debut album *In the Springtime* in 2023, in part to create a tangible musical legacy for his two young sons that would preserve his creative voice even as his disease progresses.

Generative AI has split the global music industry in recent years. Major record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio in June 2024, arguing the platforms illegally used copyrighted recorded music to train their AI models. Since the lawsuit, Universal has reached a settlement and partnership deal with Udio, and Warner has done the same with Suno. Much of the public debate has centered on copyright disputes and artist displacement, but experts say Smith’s experience highlights a less discussed, potentially transformative use case for the technology: expanding creative access for musicians living with disabilities and chronic illness.

Ruaidhri Mannion, a composer and music technology scholar at Brunel University of London, noted that affordable digital recording tools democratized music creation over the past few decades, and AI could follow the same path by lowering barriers for creators with physical limitations. “If these tools are able to enable people to be able to participate with other creative groups and encourage more people to feel confident to be able to reach out to an ensemble or an orchestra or something, then I think that is all for the better,” Mannion said. He added a caveat, however: overreliance on AI could erase the messy, iterative process of trial, error and collaborative synergy that shapes artistic development. “What makes a lot of music-making meaningful is the collaborative element. There’s a lot of experimentation and development and failure that’s part of musical discovery,” he explained.

Critics of unregulated generative AI in music, including a group of independent artists who signed an open letter titled “Say no to Suno” earlier this year, argue that the technology erodes artist royalties and enables creative fraud when it scrapes existing copyrighted work without permission. The letter acknowledged that responsible AI use can benefit creators, but called for clearer protections for working artists. Both Suno and Udio have denied copyright infringement claims and stated they are committed to collaborating with the music industry, rather than operating against it.

Smith believes his experience makes the case for responsible, targeted AI development that benefits marginalized creators. His message to AI music platforms is clear: “if these companies want to show they’ve got a place, a role in society, then step up. Engage with health professionals, engage with music therapists, engage with society and show us what you can do.” In May 2024, Smith partnered with the Berklee Music and Health Institute for a New York event bringing together industry leaders, clinicians and researchers to explore how music and technology can support people living with neurological conditions. For Smith, continuing to create music is about more than art: it is about refusing to let Parkinson’s define his identity or the legacy he leaves for his children. “My 4-year-old is probably never going to remember me playing, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “But I’ve been able to pull this into something and refuse to be defined by this disease.”

In a quiet unemployment office in 1990s London, a chance encounter between civil servant Sue Tilley and legendary portrait painter Lucian Freud reshaped the course of both art history and Tilley’s life. This June, one of the most celebrated works born from that collaboration is set to hit the auction block, carrying a staggering pre-sale valuation that could cement its place among the most valuable modern art pieces ever sold.

Titled *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet*, the 1996 work is the final of four large-scale reclining portraits Freud painted of Tilley. Sotheby’s will offer the 2.3-meter-tall nude piece at auction on June 24, with experts projecting it will sell for between £25 million and £35 million (equal to $33 million to $47 million). For 69-year-old Tilley, who never profited from the multi-million-dollar auction sales of the other portraits Freud made of her, the moment is not about regret—it is about the quiet thrill of earning an unplanned place in art history.

Grandson of pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Lucian Freud built his legacy as the 20th century’s most acclaimed British portrait painter, celebrated for his thick, textured application of oil paint that captured unflinching, yet warm, depictions of his subjects’ textured skin tones. Over a decades-long career, he painted everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to close friends, family, and fellow creatives, favoring intimate, revealing portraits of people in his personal circle. His reputation has only grown in the years following his 2011 death at age 88, with his works consistently breaking auction records. In 2008, an earlier Freud portrait of Tilley, *Benefits Supervisor Sleeping*, sold for $33.6 million—a then-record price for a work by a living artist. A second Tilley portrait, *Benefits Supervisor Resting*, fetched $56.2 million at auction in 2015, and another of Freud’s works sold for $86 million in 2022.

Tilley first crossed paths with Freud through her friend, the late Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, who already modeled regularly for the painter. She recalled the casual rhythm of the sitting process in Freud’s cluttered London studio: long sessions stretched over months, punctuated by endless cups of tea, lively chitchat about the artist’s wild bohemian youth, and leisurely midday lunches. Even Freud’s unorthodox habit of stirring drinks with a used paintbrush, which left flecks of oil on Tilley’s clothes and skin, became a beloved part of the experience.

Of the four portraits, *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet* holds a special place for Tilley: unlike the other works that required her to lie flat for hours (a position that grew increasingly painful over time), this piece saw her seated upright in a chair, making for a far more comfortable sitting experience. The unapologetically raw depiction of her body has never troubled her, either. “I’m not really vain,” Tilley shared during an interview at Sotheby’s showroom, standing before the towering canvas. “Sometimes I get out of bed in the morning, and I look at my legs and go, ‘Oh, they look just like that painting.’”

Today, the portrait is part of the collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis, majority owner of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and it is one of dozens of high-value works in Lewis’ collection going up for sale. The entire auction of Lewis’ collection, which also includes iconic pieces by Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele, is valued at more than £150 million ($201 million). Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, calls *Sleeping by the Lion Carpet* Freud’s magnum opus, noting the artist himself viewed the work as the peak of his creative achievement. “The market knows, and it’s very savvy, it wants to go for the best of the best — and this is it,” Barker said.

While Tilley never received a share of the millions these portraits have generated at auction, and Freud only gifted her a small set of etchings (which she sold to fund a holiday), she holds no resentment. Now retired and living on England’s south coast, she says the greatest reward is the permanent place she has earned in art history. As a young woman, she spent hours poring over art books, fascinated by the interconnected bohemian circles of pre-Raphaelites and Impressionists. Only recently has she realized she now belongs to that same world. “That’s thrilling for me that I’ve achieved my ambition without really knowing it,” she said.

For more than two centuries, France has stood as one of the most enduring cultural influences on the United States, weaving a complicated yet deeply connected bond marked by shared history, creative exchange and, at times, gentle rivalry. As both nations mark major milestones – 250 years of formal diplomatic relations and the U.S. semiquincentennial of its founding – a new curated exhibition at Manhattan’s The Shed titled “Hidden Treasures” pulls back the curtain on this long-running relationship through the lens of iconic French luxury craftsmanship.

Organized by Comité Colbert, the governing body that unites France’s most prestigious luxury maisons spanning fashion, fragrance, jewelry, hospitality and spirits, the exhibition brings together one-of-a-kind archival pieces sourced directly from the collections of 65 member houses and partner cultural institutions. Each artifact was carefully selected to tell a different chapter of the cross-Atlantic connection that has shaped tastes on both sides for generations. To honor the trans-Atlantic journey that brought these pieces to American audiences, every item is displayed inside repurposed shipping containers, a subtle nod to the centuries of exchange that underpin the exhibit’s narrative.

Among the most high-profile standouts on display is the soft pink brushed cashmere Givenchy coat worn by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy during her landmark 1961 official visit to Paris. Also featured is Madonna’s iconic revealing pinstriped gown from Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1992 AIDS charity benefit runway, a replica of Cartier’s custom lunar module created to commemorate the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, and the 1782 Libertas Americana medal commissioned by Benjamin Franklin from French artisans and the Paris Mint to thank France for its support during the American Revolutionary War.

Other notable pieces include a recreated Belle Époque diamond necklace from Boucheron, originally crafted in 1899 for wealthy Irish-American silver magnate John William Mackay and his wife Marie-Louise, who commissioned 50 custom pieces from the French brand. A 1964 Veuve Clicquot advertisement is also on display, showcasing the champagne house’s clever early marketing strategy that paired its product with classic American hamburgers to reposition Champagne from a drink reserved exclusively for rare special occasions to an accessible luxury for everyday U.S. consumers.

The exhibition, which runs through the end of May, opens at a moment when American consumers now drive a significant share of global demand for French luxury goods, prompting brands to rapidly expand their footprint across the United States beyond the traditional luxury hubs of the East and West coasts and Las Vegas. In recent months, leading maisons including Dior, Louis Vuitton and Chanel have all hosted high-profile runway shows on U.S. soil, while smaller and heritage brands are also growing their domestic presence: Hermès opened a new boutique in Nashville in 2023, and Boucheron, which launched its U.S. flagship on Madison Avenue in 2024, already plans to open a fourth American location before the end of the year.

Industry analysts note that the strategic expansion into middle America follows the same playbook that drove massive growth among Chinese consumers over the past two decades. New York University luxury marketing professor Thomaï Serdari explains that over the last 15 years, French brands have successfully adjusted their product ranges to cater to a broader cross-section of American consumers, unlocking mass-market demand while retaining their elite cultural cachet.

Scholars point out that the American reverence for French cultural taste dates back to the earliest days of the U.S. as an independent nation. When the U.S. was still a young, modest global economy, established European cultures like France dominated global standards of elegance and style – a dynamic that endures today. Even before the Statue of Liberty arrived as a gift from France in 1886, and long before Alexis de Tocqueville published his groundbreaking 1830s analysis of American democracy, Americans already looked to France as the global arbiter of cultural refinement.

“American people love French elegance — the ‘je ne sais quoi’ of French luxury,” said Bénédicte Épinay, president and CEO of Comité Colbert. “It’s a deep link starting at the 18th century and still alive.”

While the global luxury sector has faced headwinds in recent years, including post-pandemic demand shifts, economic uncertainty and past tariff disputes between the U.S. and European Union, Épinay emphasized that political and economic fluctuations are temporary, and the core cultural bond between the two nations remains unshaken. “Politics and economics, it’s up and down,” she said. “We’re here to celebrate this strong cultural link between us.”