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The celebrity Halloween costumes keep coming in, and Ed Sheeran’s just might perfectly encapsulate 2024.
On Monday, October 31, the 33-year-old artist took to Instagram to reveal his costume — a monkey. Sheeran is seen wearing a furry brown onesie with large ears. While the “Thinking Out Loud” hitmaker’s costume may seem simple, there’s an interesting story behind this one.
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Sheeran’s costume comes months after an AI image of him as a monkey went viral. Sheeran looks nearly identical to his AI counterpart — which, ironically, is what people said of the original AI photo compared to the singer when it first went viral.
Though the “Lego House” singer appears to have had some fun with the image, he has previously denounced the use of AI in art and music.
In an August 2023 interview with Audacy Live, Sheeran expressed discomfort with how accurately AI can replicate someone’s vocals and likeness.
“What I don’t understand about AI is, for the last 60 years, Hollywood movies have been telling you, ‘Don’t do it.’ And now everyone’s doing it,” Sheeran said. “Have you not seen the movies where they kill us all?”
Sheeran continued, warning that AI could affect the job market and potentially put people out of work.
“I just don’t know why you need it – if you’re taking a job away from a human being, I think that’s probably a bad thing” he said. “The whole point of society is we all do jobs. If everything is done by robots, everybody’s gonna be out of work. I just find AI a bit weird.”
Since 2022, Sheeran has been on the Mathematics Tour — a world tour featuring live performances of music from all of his album eras. The tour is set to wrap in September 2025, however, the “Shape of You” hitmaker is putting out a live album featuring performances from the tour on Friday, December 27.
And yes, these are pure, raw vocals — not AI.
