Czech ice dancers Kateřina Mrázková and Daniel Mrázek stepped onto Olympic ice for the first time on Monday—a remarkable achievement built on years of commitment and training. Yet the sibling pair performed their rhythm dance to AI-generated music, a choice that, while not against official regulations, stands as a disheartening sign of just how far artificial influence has reached. As Mrázek lifted his sister in an astonishing cartwheel-like move that seemed to defy human limits, an NBC commentator casually noted, “This is AI generated, this first part,” referring to the soundtrack. In some ways, that offhand remark feels even more surreal than the breathtaking athleticism the duo displayed under Olympic pressure.

The ice dance competition consists of two segments: the rhythm dance, which must align with an annual theme, and the free dance. This season’s theme is “The Music, Dance Styles, and Feeling of the 1990s.” Other pairs embraced the era wholeheartedly—British skaters Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson honored the Spice Girls, and American favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates performed to a Lenny Kravitz medley. For reasons likely tied to licensing, however, Mrázková and Mrázek skated to a mix that was half AC/DC and half AI. It’s an unusual blend, made even stranger by the fact that this isn’t the first time the duo has turned to AI music, nor is it the first instance where that decision has sparked criticism.

According to the International Skating Union, the governing body for competitive figure skating, the pair’s rhythm dance music this season is listed as “One Two by AI (of 90s style Bon Jovi)” and “Thunderstruck by AC/DC.” The official Olympics website also confirms the use of AI-generated music in their rhythm dance.

The Czech siblings have encountered backlash earlier in the season for using AI music. In a previous routine, they skated to a ’90s-inspired AI track that opened with the jarring line: “Every night we smash a Mercedes Benz.” That lyric will sound familiar to anyone who knows the 1990s hit “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals—a song famously accompanied by a music video shot in a Staten Island mall, capturing a certain nostalgic American vibe. The AI-generated song also included lines like “Wake up, kids/We got the dreamer’s disease,” and “First we run, and then we laugh ’til we cry”—again, direct lifts from the New Radicals track. Even the title, “One Two,” mirrors the opening words of that same song.

Prior to the Olympics, the duo replaced those lyrics with AI-generated verses that closely resemble Bon Jovi lines, as observed by journalist Shana Bartels in November. One example includes the phrase “raise your hands, set the night on fire,” which appears in Bon Jovi’s “Raise Your Hands”—a song, it’s worth noting, that isn’t even from the ’90s. This was the track the pair performed to in their Olympic rhythm dance before transitioning into AC/DC’s authentic 1990s hit “Thunderstruck.”

While the specific software used to create the music isn’t known, the outcome reflects how large language models are designed to work. Trained on vast datasets of existing music—often gathered under legally questionable circumstances—these models generate outputs based on statistical probability. That approach can be effective for coding tasks, but when asked to produce a song “in the style of Bon Jovi,” the result inevitably borrows heavily from actual Bon Jovi material.

Despite these issues, the music industry has shown fleeting fascination with partially or fully artificial “musicians.” Take Telisha Jones, a 31-year-old from Mississippi who used Suno to set her poetry to music under the alias Xania Monet—and later secured a $3 million record deal.

It’s unfortunate that what should be a celebratory Olympic milestone for Mrázková and Mrázek is being overshadowed by debate over their AI music selection—a debate I’m admittedly adding to here. Still, one has to wonder: isn’t ice dance meant to be a display of genuine creativity?