What’s reportedly sauce for Harvard University’s president may also be sauce for Kanye West.
As Claudine Gay faces charges that she plagiarized her scholarship, a new analysis from celebrity gossip website TMZ suggests that the hip hop mogul, who goes by Ye, may have used an artificial intelligence chatbot to pen his Hebrew “apology” to Jews.
When TMZ ran Ye’s message through the program Free AI Detector—which a company called Scribbr makes to help educators detect plagiarism—the tool suggested an 85% chance that an AI chatbot wrote Ye’s statement.
Among the flagged phrases were “sincerely apologize,” “It was not my intention to hurt” and “promoting unity.”
“Doesn’t sound like typical Kanye, right?” TMZ wrote.
Others have noted that the rapper, who has a long and recent history of antisemitism, may have issued the apology, which he posted in Hebrew without explanation, to boost sales ahead of his forthcoming album “Vultures.”
To further test its thesis, TMZ enlisted ChatGPT to write an apology. “After several prompts and some trial and error, the computer spat out a statement eerily similar to Kanye’s,” per TMZ.
While noting “untold damage” that Ye caused with “his vast influence” to “poison countless minds with vicious antisemitism and hate,” the Anti-Defamation League wrote that “an apology in Hebrew may be the first step on a long journey towards making amends” and “this initial act of contrition is welcome.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach called the apology “garbage” and said, “Kanye West’s apology is ridiculous.” Meanwhile, Nick Fuentes, a neo-Nazi, said it was “disappointing, but not really a surprise” that Ye apologized.
Why I reject @kanyewest apology #kanye#jews#antisemitism pic.twitter.com/3XBRtruitO
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) December 28, 2023