Kelly Clarkson loves AI. People online do not love her for that.

There are few people on the internet more universally beloved than Kelly Clarkson. She has somehow spent nearly two decades cultivating the rarest of celebrity currencies — goodwill. People like Kelly. They root for Kelly. Generally speaking, they would like to see Kelly have a nice day.

So it would take something truly egregious to turn the internet against "Miss Independent." And this week, she did just that when she said her life would suck without AI.

The trouble began during Clarkson's recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, where she talked about her relationship with ChatGPT. She jokingly called the chatbot her "lover" and explained that she has enlisted it as a sort of digital interior designer, using it to visualize ideas for one of her properties, including paths and landscaping at the place she has in Santa Barbara.

During the podcast's "I Don't Think So, Honey" hot-take segment, Clarkson even declared, "I love AI," adding that there are "very amazing things with AI that I am obsessed with." And she wasn't limiting her enthusiasm to using ChatGPT as a glorified design consultant. Clarkson said she's "very into it artistically," too, and that she has fun with AI "just like everybody else does."

Her reasoning was that AI could give people who might not otherwise be able to create music or art a new entry point into the creative process. It's an idea that has found champions among artists, including Will.i.am, Grimes, and Timbaland, all of whom have spoken about AI as a new kind of creative playground, a tool that can expand the boundaries of what artists can make.

But Clarkson did have one pretty significant caveat. "When you see AI artists competing on a chart with humans, I have an issue," she said. "I think there should be a separate chart." So the robots can have a chart. They just shouldn't be allowed to steal the humans' trophies.

Many fans, unfortunately, were not particularly interested in hearing the nuance.

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The backlash came quickly, with fans and AI critics taking issue not only with Clarkson's comments about AI-generated music but with her broader enthusiasm for the technology. Some called it a "very rare L" for the singer. Others cited the environmental costs of AI and data centers. Still others argued that AI-generated art shouldn't be considered creative in the same sense as work made by humans.

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People weren't just mad; they seemed genuinely bummed out by her admission. "Kelly no...this isn't you...," one commenter pleaded.

Some commenters said they stopped listening to the podcast once the AI conversation began. Others criticized her for using AI for design work. And some users went considerably further, speculating — without evidence — that celebrities are being paid to normalize AI.

But beneath all of that was a simpler objection: Why Kelly?

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Because Clarkson has spent years occupying a strange corner of celebrity culture. She's famous enough to be enormous, but relatable enough that people still talk about her like she's their favorite cousin. She's the American Idol winner whose career became a multigenerational pop success story, and the daytime host who can outsing your faves. There is a reason "America's sweetheart" has followed her around for so long.

Yet, despite her comments, Clarkson isn't exactly tossing human artistry out the window. Just a few weeks ago, she called AI "soulless" in a video with Betches. Now, she's drawing a line between AI-generated music and the work of human musicians. She just seems to think there should be room for both. "Both can be creative in a completely different way," she said.

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Maybe that's not a contradiction so much as the uncomfortable reality of AI's arrival in everyday life. It's becoming difficult to be completely for it or completely against it when the technology is, sometimes simultaneously, useful, fascinating, unsettling, and deeply disruptive to creative work.

Clarkson seems to be trying to find her own line. AI can be fun. AI can be useful. AI can help people create. But when it comes to competing on a music chart, she thinks humans should have their own lane.

Many of her fans, at least for now, seem to think Kelly Clarkson should stay in hers.