Most people know Claire Elise Boucher by their musician pseudonym, Grimes. From 2012 to 2014, they released albums “Visions” and “Art Angels,” garnering millions of listens and cementing the name Grimes as synonymous with Tumblr-viral, 2010s music. These works, which Boucher said were self-produced on Apple’s GarageBand, paved the way for mainstream art-pop. They followed Imogene Heap’s wave of girly, experimental techno-indie, which stands today as a sign of the times for late-2000s tech optimism.
Subsequently, Grimes’ present-day plan for releasing an album centering AI is representative of the trajectory that technology has undergone since their first record, transforming from the one thing that can save us to the nail in humanity’s coffin. The story of Claire Boucher serves as evidence of the stark cultural shifts that have changed America in the past 10 years, creating a messy timeline involving technology, music and money.
Y2K tech optimism
In 2010, ripples caused by Apple’s release of the iPhone were gradually calming. Personal technology was solidified as a part of day-to-day life for the first time. It was innovative, life-changing and somehow affordable. Obama-era hope and untethered progressiveness defined people’s attitudes as tech-bro start-ups made Americans feel like anyone could be a Silicon Valley millionaire.
Extravagantly rich people were old, wrinkly, racist hardasses no longer. A new class of post-recession wealth emerged, composed of young, nonchalant college dropouts who swapped stiff suits for blue jeans and business cards for derp-core glasses. Rags-to-riches stories fantasize a narrative where building billion-dollar companies happens by accident. Whether your humble beginnings were in a garage like Apple or a college dorm like Facebook, the embers of genius could ignite Silicon Valley tech explosions wherever nerdy upper-middle-class white men reside. This environment fostered the rise of a 30-year-old PayPal millionaire, Elon Musk.
Young Musk blended in perfectly with the other early 2010s college-dropout CEOs. His public image portrayed the deceptive picture of a down-to-earth, meme-fluent and effortlessly self-made California tech bro. It’s easy to see how it “broke the internet” when he hard-launched his relationship with Tumblr royalty Boucher at the 2018 Met Gala. At this point, Boucher’s third and fourth albums, “Visions” and “Art Angles,” were widely critically acclaimed, and Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, was worth billions. Despite their nearly 20-year age gap, it seemed like nothing could go wrong for the esoteric and wildly successful couple as they stood hand in hand on the Met Gala red carpet, staring into flashing cameras and a bright future.
Technocracy and techno-fascism
In May of 2020, the couple made national headlines when they announced their first baby would be named, “X Æ A-12,” later changed to, “X Æ A-Xii,” and better known today as, “Little X.” Grimes explained that disjointed letters in the controversial name reference artificial intelligence, love, her first records and a Lockheed Martin aircraft. In May of 2020, little X’s birth was announced with a picture of Musk holding the infant and sporting a shirt that read, “Occupy Mars.”
The name of Musk’s first child is reflective of a general pattern in the tech mogul’s pre-Trump behavior. His actions seem laughable and are perceived by most of the public as bemusing. In reality, they are intentional and usually representative of something sinister. Although Grime’s explanation for the name could also hold true, ‘X Æ A-12’ can be traced back to Elon’s great-grandfather, who brought the Musk family to apartheid South Africa in the 1940s after being arrested in Canada on conspiracy charges because he was the head of a political party that called for technocracy.
Some technocratic beliefs that may feel familiar in American politics today include the merging of America, Canada and Mexico for a super-state controlled by tech-billionaires called the “Technate of America.” Under the Technate, it was believed that humans should have data-first names, since data is what drives the technocracy. Many speculate that this is the true origin of Little X’s strange name. This also can explain Grimes’ 2018 name change announcement, when she started going by ‘c’ shortly after her first public appearance with Musk.
In September of 2021, Musk and Grimes announced a “semi-separation,” citing issues with long-distance as Grimes’ music career kept her in LA while Musk’s business pursuits kept him in Texas. However, over the next two years, the pair had two more children together- Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus. The names of these children follow the same Technocratic naming convention as their first child; Exa Dark Sideræl is also called ‘Y,’ and Techno Mechanicus is also called ‘2.’
A legacy at any cost: pronatalism
From 2022 to 2024, Grimes and Musk engaged in a messy custody battle in which Grimes claims they didn’t see one of her children for over five months. During this time, Grimes went on a hiatus from releasing music while Musk rebranded Twitter to X and rolled out the first Cybertrucks. Grimes described Musk as the “love of her life” who became “unrecognizable.” They have accused him of withholding their children’s passports, so they were unable to visit their dying mother in Canada. Grimes also stated that their Instagram posts and modeling career were used against them in court, and that they were close to going bankrupt while fighting for their kids.
In 2023, Business Insider reported that Musk makes monthly child support payments of just $2,760 for all three children. That same year, Musk made $93 billion. Before his relationship wth Grimes, Musk already had 11 children with four different women. He has publicly stated that this is because he wants to increase the Earth’s population and build a personal “legion.” Musk’s views surrounding reproduction reflect a recent disturbing Silicon Valley trend- pronatalism.
The most liberal form of pronatalism promotes making parents’ lives easier with social services like maternity leave and free childcare. However, tech CEOs align themselves with a more conservative form of pronatalism that views childbearing as an obligation rather than a choice, promoting increased birth rates with abortion bans. This far-right pronatalism cites white supremacist conspiracy theories like replacement theory, feeding fascist ideas that circle back to the tech world like pre-natal eugenics. Elon Musk’s estranged daughter alleged that Musk used pre-natal testing through in-vitro fertilization to make his children male.
This concept is tied to artificial intelligence, as this has become a useful tool for determining and manipulating prenatal conditions. Some pro-natalists take AI’s application a step further, theorizing that the growth of AI could eventually replace the need for humans, making pronatalism either obsolete or more crucial than ever.
The murky politics of Claire Boucher
Amid their tumultuous relationship with a powerful techno-fascist nazi multibillionaire, Grime’s politics have always been a topic of much debate. This past June, an announcement that the queer techno-artist would perform at DC World Pride was met with vehement criticism, mostly surrounding Musk’s actions in the White House. Boucher pulled out of the festival days later, citing family reasons.
Despite backlash tying them to their ex, Grimes has come out against the words and actions of Musk many times- they posted on X after his inauguration nazi salute, urging fans not to associate them with their ex’s actions, “I am not him. I will not make a statement every time he does something. I can only send love back into a world that is hurting.”
However, Boucher’s personal ideologies remain questionable. Since the beginning of her career, they have had a fascination with the singularity– a point in the future where technological growth surpasses human knowledge and understanding. This idea seemed novel ten years ago, but in an age of actual tech oligarchs considering the value of human work and dignity, the singularity is a stark concept. Still, Boucher has a love for AI, which they used shamelessly despite criticism from fans and other industry creatives.
In 2022, Boucher created over 200 Grimes AI Records that content creators can use for free to “enhance videos.” In 2023, Grimes launched Elf Tech– an AI program that allows users to transform the sound of their voices into an AI generation of her vocals. Users have legal permission to release music created using Elf Tech in the voice of Grimes, with a 50/50 royalties split. This software was released amid pressure in the arts for the regulation of AI so that the rapidly advancing technology cannot steal creative work. Grimes always embraced this concept, responding directly to other artists being ripped off by AI with a promo for Elf Tech. In a 2024 interview, they said that AI would make real talent rise to the top, praising the technology as something that “will probably shape all minds going forward for the rest of time.” This AI-positive mindset has not gone without criticism from other industry creatives. Zola Jesus posted on X, calling Grimes “the voice of silicon fascist privilege.”
Grimes has been teasing their first new album since 2021 for two years. Titled “Book 1,” its release was postponed to 2024 in 2023. Although fans are still awaiting its release, singles “Player of Games” and “Shinigami Eyes” were released in 2021 and 2022 and are expected to be singles from the album. Unfortunately, “Book 1” will likely be Grimes’ worst album because of their obsession with AI. It is expected that “Book 1” will heavily feature AI in both its content and production.
Whether Boucher’s stubborn defense of generative AI is a byproduct of her stardom being nurtured in a tech-optimist culture or a sign of techno-fascist beliefs is unclear. They pointed to the former in a 2024 interview with NME, referring to their early garage-band-produced albums as “fully the byproduct of technology.” However, they have also alluded to the latter in the very same interview, expressing excitement about the idea of AI fully replacing human artists. These beliefs are antithetical to art. Australian musician Nick Cave has referred to AI music as “A grotesque mockery of what it is to be human,” a description that Grimes would likely embrace as they pursue transhumanism, identifying at different times as a cyborg and an alien.
Artificial intelligence harms musicians, whether it’s being peddled by a human or not. Grimes is doing themselves and their fans a great injustice, discrediting their natural creative talent by pushing generative AI. Boucher is wrong to see AI as a modern insurgent, as it is the exact opposite. AI is only capable of creating content that mimics pre-existing content, standing as nothing but an emotionless shadow of previous works; the epitome of unoriginality.