MALAYSIA — Move over Jay Chou. ChatGPT just dropped the hottest track. 

Malaysian YouTubers Steady Gang attempted to create a Jay Chou-inspired song written by AI bot ChatGPT last Thursday (March 9). The result? A diss track directed at the King of Mandopop himself.

The song has become so popular, it made top three in the “Top Songs” category this week on YouTube.

In February, Chou claimed on Instagram that his unique style of music cannot be recreated by artificial intelligence: “Despite the capabilities of today’s artificial intelligence, my special touch of musicality can’t be recreated by a machine, and that’s why you don’t see me worrying about it.”

Steady Gang, a Malaysia YouTube trio that makes Mandopop parodies, decided to challenge Chou's statement. 

Turns out ChatGPT has a knack for songwriting in Chinese, though it’s certainly not the AI chatbot’s first stint. Last December, ChatGPT wrote the English lyrics to a song about the "Singaporean rat race".

“Let’s see if AI can surpass Jay Chou,” said Steady Gang member and Malaysian Mandopop singer Choo Haoren. 

Entering the first prompt, the YouTuber asked ChatGPT to write a song “with Jay Chou as the topic”. 

The GPT-3 powered chatbot came up with lyrics singing praises for Chou. 

“Jay Chou, you are the king of music,” read one line. 

The YouTuber then added a second prompt: “Can it be funnier?”

This time, ChatGPT complained about Jay Chou songs being hard to comprehend: “Your lyrics are too hard to understand, like reading ancient text.”

The YouTuber made a final request:  “Can you make it rhyme, hello?!” 

At the third prompt, a masterpiece emerged. 

The song began with some subtle shade at Chou’s notoriously difficult Chinese lyrics. It went:

“We are Jay Chou fans, his music is very interesting.

But there are some lyrics, I can't clearly hear quite a few words.

Maybe I'm too stupid and shallow.

Maybe you would understand how I feel.

Let me tell you now, what I hear.”

Now, the chorus is the real kicker that had many netizens tickled.

Here's the chorus in Chinese:

“龙宫金钟 长情纯冲 情场憧憧 挂你进梦 

(Lóng gōng jīn zhōng zhǎng qíng chún chōng qíng chǎng chōng chōng guà nǐ jìn mèng) 

场众声诵 轰动争宠 琵琶流脓 等我入宫

(chǎng zhòng shēng sòng hōng dòng zhēng chǒng pípá liú nóng děng wǒ rù gōng)

哗众取宠 泪水江重 情长崇称唇沧重

(huázhòngqǔchǒng lèishuǐ jiāng zhòng qíng cháng chóng chēng chún cāng zhòng)

你听得懂吗？喔 ～

(nǐ tīng dé dǒng ma? Ō ~)”

The Chinese lyrics translate to, well, nothing really — it’s just a mumbo jumbo of Chinese words that, if sung fast enough, do sound like a typical rap by Chou.

Here's our attempt at translating the chorus into English: 

"Dragon Palace Admiralty, long-lasting pure love, longing for love, drawing you into my dreams.

The crowd chant, sensational competition for love, pus flowing from the pipa, wait for me to enter the palace.

Draw attention for love, tears like the river, heavy love, heavy lips.

Do you understand? Oh~”

Woah. Did ChatGPT just drop the best diss track of all time? 

And the cherry on the top? 

ChatGPT named the song “周懂吗”, which sounds like "都懂吗?” (Do You Understand?) in Mandarin but with a pun on Chou’s moniker Chairman Chou, as he is commonly known in the entertainment industry. 

We didn’t even know that AI can have such an immaculate sense of humour. 

Of course, ChatGPT could not have done it alone.

The melody and lyrics were co-written by Mr Choo, the Malaysian Mandopop singer, backed by a team of music producers. 

The music video, which made the top three spot on YouTube’s Music Charts and Insights in Singapore this week, received over 420,000 views and 16,000 likes in a week.

Netizens praised the song’s originality and execution.

“Originally I thought it would be a comedic style, but unexpectedly it was in Chou’s style (of music)! It really surprised me,” said one commenter. 

“The melody of the chorus is really brainwashing, I really like this casual but not casual style,” one more commentator said.

“Super nice, the music arrangement, production and performance. Costumes are stylish and it seems like a few man-made lyrics were added at the end,” said another.

“It proves that ChatGPT's ability to write lyrics should not be underestimated, but it cannot replicate music composition and arrangement for the time being.”

However, one netizen felt that there were racist undertones to ChatGPT’s lyric writing. 

“ChatGPT is racist...? (It) chose all the “ching chong ching chong” sounding Chinese words for the chorus.”

Did ChatGPT successfully one up Jay Chou with this catchy banger?

We think part of Chou’s charm is his signature mumble rap, so till AI can recreate his distinct singing style, the King of Mandopop will continue his reign.