Ed Sheeran creates a viral AI meme of himself for Halloween

Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors

The celebrity Halloween costumes keep coming, and Ed Sheeran's could be the perfect embodiment of 2024.

On Monday, October 31, the 33-year-old artist revealed his costume — a monkey — on Instagram. Sheeran wears a furry brown romper with big ears. While the “Thinking Out Loud” hitmaker's costume may seem simple, there's an interesting story behind it.

Sheeran's costume comes months after an AI image of him as a monkey went viral. Sheeran looks almost exactly like his AI counterpart – which, ironically, is also what people said about the original AI photo compared to the singer when it first went viral.

Although the “Lego House” singer appeared to have fun with the image, he has previously denounced the use of AI in art and music.

In an interview in August 2023 with Audacy LiveSheeran expressed his discomfort with how accurately AI can recreate a person's singing and likeness.

“What I don't understand about AI is that Hollywood movies for the last 60 years have been telling you, 'Don't do it.' And now everyone’s doing it,” Sheeran said. “Haven’t you seen the movies where they kill us all?”

Sheeran continued, warning that AI could impact the job market and potentially put people out of work.

“I just don't know why you need that – if you take a person's job away, I think that's probably a bad thing,” he said. “The point of society is that we all do jobs. If everything is done by robots, everyone will be unemployed. I just find AI a bit strange.”

Sheeran has been there since 2022 Mathematics tour – a world tour featuring live performances of music from all of his album eras. The tour is scheduled to end in September 2025, but the “Shape of You” hitmaker is releasing a live album of performances from the tour on Friday, December 27.

And yes, these are pure, raw vocals – not AI.