'Walk My Walk': The AI-powered hit song that's taking country music by storm

American country music has reached an unexpected milestone: the song "Walk My Walk," by the band Breaking Rust, has hit No. 1 on the Country Digital Song Sales chart by Billboard.

According to the same publication, Breaking Rust is a band created by artificial intelligence (A.I.), marking a milestone in the music industry.

In recent months, at least six A.I.-driven or A.I.-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard charts. Many of these musical projects have reached the top spots anonymously or mysteriously, spanning genres ranging from gospel to rock and, now, country.

Breaking Rust appeared online in mid-October, mostly via Instagram. The band shows no signs of human intervention in their songwriting: only a traditional-style A.I.-generated cowboy and video clips with typical pop culture scenes.

Its song, "Walk My Walk," is distinguished by the characteristic country sound, although its lyrics have been described as insular and repetitive. In one week, it accumulated more than 130,000 plays on YouTube alone.

The project, by songwriter Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, who is credited with the success behind the band, and is relatively anonymous on the internet, debuted at No. 9 on the Emerging Artists chart on Nov. 1 and has already racked up 1.6 million official plays in the United States.

What's happening with A.I. in the art world?

Artificial intelligence has already broken into country with songs that went viral on TikTok, generated covers of Jelly Roll and Post Malone hits, and even created stunning images of Dolly Parton with Reba McEntire on her deathbed.

With this track record, it's not so unexpected that now the No. 1 song on Spotify's Viral 50 list in the U.S. is a country track entirely produced by A.I.

The real discussion concerns not artistic quality, but the impact A.I. could have on human artists. Thousands of country singers, both established and unknown, now must compete with algorithms that generate music at high speed and on demand.

Several stars of the genre have expressed concern. Darius Rucker called A.I.-generated music "scary" and fears waking up one day to robots replacing songwriters. Matthew Ramsey, lead singer of Old Dominion, has also been critical, while veterans such as Randy Travis and Martina McBride have filed legal action over the unauthorized use of deepfakes.

Currently, Congress is debating legislation to protect the image and visual likeness of creators while global artists such as Billie Eilish and Stevie Wonder signed a letter last year calling on technology companies not to develop A.I. tools intended to replace human creativity.

The debate is open: A.I. is here to stay, offering efficiency and accuracy, but confronting the music industry with an ethical and cultural dilemma.

In the meantime, "Walk My Walk" has set a historic precedent, proving that artificial intelligence can already conquer the charts... and perhaps, also, the hearts of the public.