Björn Ulvaeus, a Swedish ABBA singer and songwriter, music producer and co-founder of Pophouse Entertainment, may have been 80 years, but he is still excited to create and tell stories through music and beyond. It was one of the key messages he showed up at the first SXSW on Wednesday's "Entertainment Future" conference in London, which attracted a huge crowd to the hip East London Shoreditch community.

In a wide discussion, he wrote a musical with the help of artificial intelligence, with the popular London show themed on Aba Incarnation and why his company bets on KISS to successfully get similar performances.

“Now, I’m writing an AI-assisted musical,” the killer shared on stage. Although not sharing much detail on the project, he mentioned that it was a collaboration with female creative partners and that he worked about three quarters.

So what is his experience with AI creating music? "It's a great tool," he told the SXSW London audience. "You can bounce back and forth with a machine or software, which is unthinkable, and that can get your ideas going in a different direction."

But Ulvaeus also made one thing clear: "One misunderstanding is that AI can write a song. It's awful - very bad. Thank God so much! It's awful too. 1 is awful too. But it can give you ideas."

He shared an example to illustrate a point of view. He explained: "You have written a lyric about something, maybe you might be in a stumbling way, and you want the song to have a certain style. So you can prompt the lyrics and the style you want, and ask, 'Where are you going from here?'" he explained. "And there's usually garbage, but sometimes something brings you another idea. That's how it works. It's like having another songwriter in the room with a huge frame of reference. It's really an extension of your mind."

Speaking of songwriting partners, guardian Music writer and on-stage interviewer Laura Barton asked Ulvaeus’s collaboration with ABBA partner Benny Andersson. He replied with a laugh, "It's faster, and do what you say exactly what you say." "But it's different from having a songwriter."

More laughter followed when Barton asked Ulvaeus if he had asked an AI program to write ABBA lyrics. “It said, ‘No, we can’t do that.’” he replied.

But he shared that he and Anderson did not produce just the hits. He quipped, "For a while, Benny and I didn't know what garbage was." "There is evidence. People don't listen to this."

ABBA stars currently serve as President of CISAC - the International Federation of Society of Authors and Composers. Therefore, he also has business insights to share how AI and music departments should work together. He stressed: "AI music generators train copyrighted materials. They train all the music in the world. To that end, we think they should pay some price to songwriters and artists and all the abilities that actually create AI models." "I think this is happening slowly. There is a debate in the music and tech industry about how this kind of reward happens. In addition, the UK government should also make decisions about how to regulate, how to view AI, and so does the EU."

He then suggested that a model that might follow AI is the one that streams transactions. "I think the closest model is the one we have in the streaming service that you subscribe to, and some subscriptions go back to the music industry, and that's the case with Spotify, Amazon and everyone else," he said. "That might be the one that works for that, but AI is completely different, so we don't know."

Ulvaeus co-founded Pophouse in 2014 with EQT founder Conni Jonsson. The company acquires and develops entertainment brands in music, podcasts and games. In 2022, it also began to advance its music catalog investment. On Wednesday, he stressed that this allowed him to work with music from names like Avicii, Cyndi Lauper and Kiss.

In 2021, Abba released the comeback of the album voyage and virtual stage performances ABBA Sailing In London, ticket sales exceeded the 2 million mark in the first 19 months. Ulvaeus discusses the success of the product and how other musical performances will benefit from similar shows. "We believe that in the digital age, kissing can be a very interesting avatar experience," he said.

Indeed, Pophouse announced the “KISS” at the end of 2023 to bring live performances passionately to the legendary rock band that sold over 100 million records worldwide, marking the end of its substantial existence. The new Kiss Avatar show will be the second outstanding, Avat-Power possible the Avater, Avat-Power poser the Popper the Popper-Poph-the Poph-Poph suckess consuff the Suckess conflict-Poph suckess consust the Suckess conflict-Poph suckess consust the success. ABBA Sailing At the London exhibition, Pophouse is the main investor. ”

During Wednesday’s conversation, Ulvas also discussed his ongoing appreciation of pop music, sharing his current love for Lola Young’s “Mysy” from which he radiates a chorus and how artists can future legacy in a rapidly changing environment including AI, immersive experiences and travel.

SXSW London lasts until June 7. Hollywood Reporter, is the majority stakeholder of SXSW.