'American Pie' icon Don McLean on AI: 'It'll be better than what passes itself off as music today'

People in Texas sounded off on AI job displacement, with half of people who spoke to Fox News convinced that the tech will rob them of work. Don McLean, the one-man creative force behind the hit songs "American Pie," "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)," "And I Love You So," "Castles in the Air," and other songs, albums, tours and projects, shared thoughts about artificial intelligence, music, creativity and authenticity with Fox News Digital in a recent phone interview amid his current "American Pie" 50th anniversary tour. "When you talk about artificial intelligence right now -- I'm not sure what that means at the moment, but clearly it's evolving," he said from California, where he was making several tour stops after returning from concert performances in Australia. "With any technology, you have an inflection point where it takes off," said McLean. "Today, AI has merely presented itself -- but the inflection point hasn't been reached yet. He added, "I also want to say that before a form of artificial intelligence was in use -- and it's been in use for many years -- the tape recorder and the photographic lens were both honest. If you took a picture, that was the way something looked." However, in current times, he said, "you have all this photoshopping and massaging and whatnot, so now the camera lies.