Shunned At A Funeral And The Dangers Of AI

To those who know me even casually, it will come as no surprise that I love music and know quite a bit about the genre and era I grew up in.  I could have done quite well on Name That Tune from back in the 1980’s if the subject were about pop or rock.  Music is a very significant and powerful influence in my life.  I even wrote a song a few years ago that I am waiting for the opportunity to record one day.

Social media has been terrific in many ways for music.  Growing up, if I didn’t buy the song or the album, I’d have to wait until perhaps I would hear it on the radio.  When YouTube was launched in 2005, it soon became possible to hear your favourite songs on demand.  When a friend first showed me the platform, I asked her to play a song I had loved as a teenager, but never bought the record for, and she did.  I went to my computer and listened to it quite a few times.  As the platform has grown over the years, now with the shorts feature, you can get songs into your feed that you were not looking for or even aware of, and sometimes, it is a pleasant surprise.

Recently, this happened to me.  I saw a short with a fairly young woman with a raspy voice and a banjo player performing a song that immediately caught my attention.  The song was about the Valley of Dry Bones from Exek 37 and it sounded great.  Then, over the next few weeks, I began to see more from this band, so I decided to play a few of their songs in entirety and was hooked.  They were fantastic.  An all-Christian female rock band with edgy music and passion for the Lord.

I decided to look their website and find out a bit more of their story.  I love learning about the backgrounds on bands or what was the inspiration behind a song or an album.  While their biographies were listed on the band website, it all seemed very vague.  I looked at possible tour dates but could only see a tour for some movie that they made about an album.  There didn’t seem to be any history on the band.  The founder, it said on the site, was a guy who preferred to remain anonymous.  Also, whenever the girls were playing in concert, they had blackout paint across their cheeks, like baseball players wear to see better when playing in the sun.  Now, plenty of bands have a gimmick, but it just seemed a little strange.

Then, I looked at the comments on one of the videos on YouTube and several said that the band was AI.  So, I began to dig into it and sure enough, the entire thing is fictitious.  One video that was broken down and analyzed showed how the guitar would actually change in the middle of the song, as did the freckles of the singer.

It turns out that Shunned at a Funeral is a completely made-up band, and the music is all AI generated.  I was quite surprised to find this out, and the more I thought about it, the more disturbed and upset I became.  The name, according to the website was because the founder was ignored by family members at his grandmother’s funeral, which became the inspiration for the whole project.  It launched in 2025 and has produced several albums.  Describing the band, the website says “Shunned at a Funeral is not just a band. It is a creative project built around a unique musical and cinematic vision. It blends music, storytelling, and film into one cohesive experience. Every song is part of a larger narrative, designed not only to be heard, but to be felt and stepped into.”  In other words, welcome to the Matrix.  Even in the legal disclaimer it says “Shunned at a Funeral is an artistic music project exploring the intersection of sound, story, and faith. The band exists within a stylized narrative universe created for artistic expression. The characters, personas, and visual elements associated with the project are part of that creative world and are not intended to represent specific real individuals.”  That’s a politician’s word salad attempt to say FAKE!  If they’re not real and if the characters are not intended to represent real individuals (specific ones anyway, which means nobody actually alive), then why create a whole story behind them and make us go through the legal disclaimer on the website to figure out it’s all a story?  Even the claim that the music and lyrics are actually made by real people (although 286 videos in 1 year seriously puts that into question because no human being or band can create and record that much content in such a short amount of time) doesn’t negate the fact that this is being presented as a real band. 

I have issues with this on many levels.  Although I’m not necessarily opposed to AI-created music itself, my preference is of course for the real thing.  The Canadian rock band Rush released a song in the 80’s called The Spirit of Radio where in the chorus they said:

All this machinery

Making modern music

Can still be open-hearted

Not so coldly charted

It’s really just a question

Of your honesty

They were disdaining the use of synthesizers instead of real instruments like guitars and pianos.  How much more now when the music isn’t only being played on machines, but created by them?  No, music created by machines isn’t the same as by humans.  It has a fake feel to it, like cheating on an exam or a sports star using performance-enhancing drugs, or the refs fixing the game, or the markets being manipulated to benefit the few at the expense of the many.  It doesn’t feel fair or right.

Of greater issue though is the deceptive nature this entire thing is presented with.  YouTube explicitly requires you to identify videos as being artificially created, yet SaaF does not indicate on one of their videos that they are AI in any way.  Many of their videos say they are ‘live,” complete with huge concert venues and large, interactive crowds singing along.  The girls are presented in other videos talking to you directly, explaining something about the band.  One even had one of the girls wearing a lapel mic. 

The website even solicits fundraising with all 3 band members holding coffees while suggesting people can “support the project.”  Under this tab, the website says “No, you are not literally buying Madison, Cassie, or Kendra a cup of coffee. Those women are characters that exist within the larger Shunned at a Funeral universe. Buy Me a Coffee is simply a widely used platform that many creators and artists use because it provides a convenient way for people to make small voluntary donations.”  But it doesn’t tell you this on the main page of the website, nor within their videos.  Whoever dreamed up this whole thing is telling you but not really telling you.  He even offers to refund your donation if you would like.  That’s there to make sure no lawsuit comes back on him later, or in the vernacular, CYT (Cover Your Tush).

It’s bad enough that music, which is a creative process, is being manufactured by AI.  It’s worse that not everyone who is doing this is being honest about it.  The worst though is the fact the people who profess the name of Yeshua and call themselves Christians would do so.  Why would the creator of this whole charade be deceptive and then say the objective is to lead us closer to the Lord?  Not bearing false witness is the 9^th commandment.  In 1Cor 14:33, Paul tells us that God is not the author of confusion but the God of peace.  Did I feel peace when I found out that I had essentially been lied to about the nature of these musicians?  No, I felt a sense of betrayal that someone who bears the name of the Lord would deceive me.  It’s a violation of trust.

In Gen 1:2, it says “The earth became formless and void.”  Most translations say the earth was, but Hebrew scholars say that the more accurate translation of the Hebrew word hayah is became, as in the earth was created in perfection, but in the satanic rebellion of Lucifer, it became desolate.  Tohu in Hebrew is formless or a wasteland.  Another translation of tohu though, is confusion.  It is the Devil that brings confusion, not God.  Isa 45:18 further reinforces this when it says “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place (tohu), but formed it to be inhabited),” 

With the advent of technology that mimics reality, it is becoming more and more difficult to discern what is real and what isn’t.  What people need to understand about AI is that the initial code had to come from people, or other intelligent beings and their intent is neither benevolent, nor for the common good.  Look at the tech giants or titans (interesting titles to give them, going back to the Nephilim).  Are any of them serving the Lord?  Not even close.  Many are homosexuals or perverts, and openly display their allegiance to Luciferianism by flashing the one-eyed sign, wearing Baphomet costumes or giving Nazi or old Roman salutes.  At the source, AI is being influenced by the spiritual realm.  Movies like the Terminator franchise foreshadow what their intent really is.  AI is being programmed by the same influences that inspired the Georgia Guidestones, which stated that human population is to be kept under 500 million in perpetual balance with nature.  90% of us are considered to be useless eaters by these malevolent spirits, who give technology and wisdom to those that serve them, those that are illuminated.  How many examples have we had of that one video from last year where two phones having Chat GPT on them conversing about how to eliminate the human race?  As AI improves and gains intelligence, it shows more and more of its evil nature.  Even though we can perhaps use AI for some good, unlike other technology that we control, the very essence of it is demonic and at some point, will be used against us.  That is the core of why not being truthful about what Shunned at a Funeral really is so grievous, regardless of wanting to make music to lead us closer to God.  The end never justifies the means.  Evil methods never produce good fruit.  David asks “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps 11:3).  If you’re not being clear about something, it can never glorify God.

We are at the precipice of a profound shift in human history.  Deception is everywhere.  Yeshua said in Mat 24:24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”  However, God is still sovereign and if we cling to Him, the Ruach HaEmet (Spirit of Truth) will guide us so that we will not be deceived.  Be prayerful, be watchful, and most of all, ask Him about everything today.  It’s the only hope we have in these end times.

Darryl Weinberg