Abstract: This month Kerry Hennigan continues the discussion on artificial intelligence (A.I.) and its relationship to Michael Jackson’s artistic legacy. This important theme began with Karin Merx’s article “Echoes Without Presence: AI, Michael Jackson, and the Crisis of Cultural Authenticity” published here in the Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies on 18 November 2025 and the podcast Michael Jackson’s Dream Lives On, Episode 86 which first aired 21 Nov 2025.
Column by Kerry Hennigan, editor of the free monthly newsletter A Candle for Michael, administrator of the fan group “Michael Jackson’s Short Film Ghosts” on Facebook, and an MJ blogger on WordPress. Kerry holds Certificates in the Archaeology of the Ancient World and the Archaeology of Ancient Britain from Cambridge University Professional and Continuing Education and is passionate about Viking longships and global maritime routes from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval Period.
REFERENCE AS:
Hennigan, Kerry. “MJ Studies Today CXX: ‘Study the greats and become greater’…Michael Jackson’s methodology for creating art versus “creation” by artificial intelligence. Continuing the AI conversation.” (14-12-2025). The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies Vol 12, No. 2 (2025). https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/mj-studies-today-cxx/
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“Study the greats and become greater”… Michael Jackson’s methodology for creating art versus “creation” by artificial intelligence. Continuing the AI conversation.
By Kerry Hennigan
Collage compiled © Kerry Hennigan
As a young man, Michael Jackson wrote his manifesto for becoming the greatest entertainer of the modern age. He continued to write motivational notes throughout his life, always reminding himself and other aspiring artists to “Believe in yourself. Study the greats. And become greater.”[1] And study he did, learning from masters of the art of modern dance, like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Sammy Davis Jr. From watching James Brown on television and seeing him perform live, Michael learned how the rhythm of the beat could be embodied in movement and made to seem spontaneous and unrehearsed. We can see echoes of all of these past masters, and many more, in Michael’s work. He did indeed learn from those who were great at what they did and his subsequent achievements across the broad spectrum of entertainment speak for themselves.
Now, with the increasing unsanctioned use of artificial intelligence (AI) to “create” video footage and vocals that are simulations of Michael Jackson, we have technology doing what Michael did – learning from the greats. But is it really? The data of past masters can be absorbed by AI and, depending on what it is asked to do, it can be programmed to produce a simulacrum of something that might look and sound like Michael Jackson, but it isn’t him. It lacks the human element, it lacks the emotion, the motivation, the blood, sweat and tears shed worrying over the slightest imperfection in the outcome. What it lacks is Michael Jackson himself. It lacks his vision and it certainly lacks his permission.
Something that is “created” using AI is akin to an art forger painting a “new” work in the style of an Old Master like Rembrandt or Van Gogh, signing it with the Old Master’s name, and selling it as a newly discovered “lost work” of that artist. It is NOT a Rembrandt or Van Gogh, it is somebody copying their style to deliberately deceive and defraud collectors who are always hungry for more work from the great artists of the past and will pay huge sums of money to acquire it.
In her recent essay “Echoes Without Presence; AI, Michael Jackson, and the Crisis of Cultural Authenticity,” Karin Merx, co-founder of the Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies, goes deeply into the use and misuse of AI and what it could mean for Michael Jackson’s legacy. As she notes, “His voice, dance, and the totality of his art were the products of years of disciplined mastery.” AI cannot replicate this process, she explains. “Simulation…is a disembodied echo of this process. Where imagination gives birth to meaning, simulation merely mirrors appearance.”[2]
It is a complex issue, because when fans create simulations of Michael or change his work using AI, it is largely to fulfil a desire to have music, films and performances beyond what Michael actually left us or to “improve” its quality. We want more, always more (as noted by Karin and Elizabeth Amisu in their latest podcast).[3] Wanting what exists “in the vault” is one thing, but creating something that has never been recorded or choreographed or filmed is, as expressed by Karin, to turn his art into a spectacle, “no longer interested in whether it is authentic, only that it ‘feels’ real.”[4]
Technology is a wonderful tool if used correctly. In my field of study, Archaeology, it has transformed our ability to not just locate, but accurately record, identify and date artefacts that may be hundreds or thousands of years old (or very recent). It can tell which country the wood used to build a Viking longship came from, the year the tree was felled, and from which particular forest.[5] Being able to determine the provenance of an artefact with that degree of accuracy has been revelatory. New techniques and improvements in existing ones are evolving at a furious pace, opening up new career paths specialising in their use.
When it comes to art, there is also an opportunity to use technical innovation to enhance a new work in the making, whether in providing new sounds or filmic effects or something entirely different. Michael Jackson loved technology and always liked to be ahead of the game in its use. His This Is it concerts were pushing the technological envelope for live performances with the use of newly shot 3D films combined with his live performance. We can only imagine to what use he might have put AI if he were with us today, still creating innovative art of one form or another.
However, he isn’t with us, and if his work is used by other than the custodians and copyright owners of that work, then it is not only illegal, but risks demeaning Michael Jackson’s real art and confusing future generations who may not know the difference. As Karin writes, “To preserve his legacy is not to reproduce him endlessly, but to honour the fragile, historic, and profoundly human dimensions of his art.”[6]
Kerry Hennigan
14 December 2025
Sources:
[1] “Study the Greats and become Greater” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK4EByF8sho Further statements by Michael Jackson on studying and success can be found at https://www.truemichaeljackson.com/thoughts-and-ideas/on-studying-and-success/
[2] Merx, Karin, ‘Echoes Without Presence: AI, Michael Jackson, and the Crisis of Cultural Authenticity’, 12, no.2 (2025), The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/echoes-without-presence-ai-michael-jackson-and-the-crisis-of-cultural-authenticity/
[3] Merx, Karin, and Elizabeth Amisu. “Episode 86 – Echoes Without Presence” Podcast, Michael Jackson’s Dream Lives On: An Academic Conversation, 13 no. 2 (2025). Published electronically 21/11/25. https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/episode-86-echoes-without-presence.
[4] Merx, Karin, ‘Echoes Without Presence: AI, Michael Jackson, and the Crisis of Cultural Authenticity’, 12, no.2 (2025), The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/echoes-without-presence-ai-michael-jackson-and-the-crisis-of-cultural-authenticity/
[5] Viking Ship Museum, Denmark. “Skuldelev 2.” Retrieved 25 Nov 2025 from https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/the-longships/findings-of-longships-from-the-viking-age/skuldelev-2
[6] Merx, Karin, ‘Echoes Without Presence: AI, Michael Jackson, and the Crisis of Cultural Authenticity’, 12, no.2 (2025), The Journal of Michael Jackson Academic Studies https://michaeljacksonstudies.org/echoes-without-presence-ai-michael-jackson-and-the-crisis-of-cultural-authenticity/
Artwork: “To preserve his legacy is not to reproduce him endlessly…” (from a quote by Karin Merx) compiled by Kerry Hennigan, not using A.I., but a real photograph of Michael Jackson from This Is It edited with PhotoScape X Pro software. No infringement of original photographic copyright is intended in this not for profit, educational exercise.