"Country singers losing to a robot" - Internet reacts to AI artist “Breaking Rust” ranking at the top on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart

A song from AI artist Breaking Rust recently topped Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales Chart, for the week of November 8, 2025. For the uninitiated, the Billboard chart lists the most-downloaded songs in the U.S. According to USA Today, Breaking Rust's Walk My Walk reportedly has over 3.5 million streams on Spotify as of November 13.

The AI-generated blues country singer's October EP, titled Resilient, included tracks like Walk My Walk and Livin' On Borrowed Time. Breaking Rust reportedly has over 41,000 followers on Instagram and 2.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. According to People Magazine, Walk My Walk also currently appears on iTunes' Top 10 of the all-genres chart, while Resilient is listed on iTunes Top 10 albums.

Breaking Rust's songs are reportedly credited to Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, who is also connected to another AI-backed music project, Defbeatsai. Not much information is known about Taylor, whose digital footprint seems nonexistent.

An AI artist leading Billboard's Country Digital Song Sales Chart was met with strong reactions from netizens on X, with one user writing:

"Country singers losing to a robot was NOT on my 2025 bingo card."

Several netizens suggested that record labels made more money if they used AI artists instead of actual musicians, claiming that the industry was "cooked."

Others pointed out the hypocrisy of country music accepting AI artists over black musicians.

Meanwhile, one user advocated for stricter rules in the music industry to inform listeners that they were listening to AI-generated artists. Another user added that while they liked the song initially, knowing that it was from an AI-generated artist made it lose its impact.

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Exploring other AI artists charting on Billboard

According to a Billboard report dated November 4, 2025, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted across various Billboard charts. The most notable example is Xania Monet, whose songs have debuted on various Billboard charts, including Hot R&B Songs, Hot Gospel Songs, Adult R&B Airplay, and R&B Digital Song Sales.

Xania Monet's creator, Telisha Jones, sat for an interview with Gayle King earlier this month, saying she wanted to reveal herself as she wanted people to know "there was a real person behind Xania" and that there was "real emotion and soul put into those lyrics."

Jones also stated that Monet was an extension of her, so she looked at the AI-generated artist as a "real person." When King asked her thoughts about people accusing her of taking a shortcut to enter the music industry, Jones replied:

"I wouldn't call it a shortcut, because I still put in the work. Anytime something new comes about and it challenges the norm and it challenges what we're used to, you're going to get strong reactions behind it. And I just feel that AI is the new era that we're in. I look at it as a tool, as an instrument. Utilize it!"

According to Billboard, other AI artists on the charts include Enlly Blue, who debuted at No. 44 on the Emerging Artists chart dated October 18, and Unbound Music, who debuted at No. 47 on the Emerging Artists chart dated October 11, to name a few.

Speaking to ABC News, Emmy Award-winning journalist Kelley L. Carter stated that the emergence of AI artists felt like "an experiment" to test how far "something like this can go," adding:

"Ultimately, this feels like an experiment to see just how far something like this can go and what happens in the future and in other disciplines of art as well. AI artists won't require things that a real human artist will require, and once companies start considering it and looking at bottom lines, I think that's when artists should rightly be concerned about it."

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The creator behind Breaking Rust has yet to comment on the AI artist's success as of this article.

Edited by Juhi Marzia