A mysterious stranger rode into town and topped a country music chart. He might not be real.

This much is known: “Walk My Walk,” a song by an artist called Breaking Rust, entered its second week Wednesday as the top song on Billboard’s country music digital sales chart

This much is known: “Walk My Walk,” a song by an artist called Breaking Rust, entered its second week Wednesday as the top song on Billboard’s country music digital sales chart.

After that, everything about Breaking Rust — the artist’s identity, whether Breaking Rust’s songs were created by artificial intelligence and whether the songs’ popularity has been artificially inflated — quickly devolves into uncertainty. Is the song entirely AI? Partially AI? Maybe even a song meant to sound like AI? And who is behind Breaking Rust?

There are few definitive answers. A request for comment sent by NBC News to the Instagram account of Breaking Rust went unanswered. The artist has virtually no other footprint outside of its Instagram, Spotify and YouTube pages.

The mystery has caused a stir in a music industry already wrestling with its future, as some artists openly embrace AI and others vehemently oppose it. Last week, Billboard reported that at least one AI artist has debuted in each of its past six chart weeks — and acknowledged the figure could be even higher since “it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent.” Although Billboard has described Breaking Rust and a similar-sounding artist, Cain Walker, as AI, neither of their Instagram or Spotify pages indicate that is so. Walker did not respond to a request for comment made through the artist’s Instagram account.

Still, their emergence has drawn criticism from some in the country music community.