Does interest in an AI generated performance mean audiences no longer value people?
Ice-T suggested some future audiences may care more about a story than whether a performer is real. That's a proposition to examine, and it says nothing about every audience or medium. Before you test anything, work out what your audience is choosing.
Start by defining the choice people are making. Buying access to a story, following a particular artist and attending a live event are different decisions, and success in one says nothing about demand in the others.
Find out what people would miss if the person were gone. Some value interpretation, an ongoing relationship or knowing who stands behind the work. Other customers put convenience or price first. Write the difference down without ranking anyone as sophisticated or outdated.
If you test a synthetic element, disclose it clearly enough that people can make a meaningful choice. Skip measuring acceptance while withholding the feature you're asking about.
Use the findings to decide where the experiment belongs. A team can explore a production option without declaring that the audience has stopped caring about artists. Make the claim as specific as the evidence allows.