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A.I. Take the Wheel

Writer's picture: AndHeHadANameAndHeHadAName

Updated: Jan 12

We are entering a new Era (no Swifties, not that kind of Era).


An Era where hu-man is finally being challenged. Not simply as the dominant species (a battle we are losing gravely to Tardisgras), but as the dominant thinkers.


Roughly 3 years ago the idea that stoner psychedelic art could ever be outsourced to machines was unthinkable, yet we had no idea what was truly in store. In just the last 18 months the advances made by artificial intelligence have been huge. Now integrating into almost any business product that has a use case (like coming up with the idea for Saleforce commercials) and electronic device, it seems we have reached an unrivaled time in terms of how we can play "Despacito".



The Pinnacle of AI in 2023

Further while I have made no secret of the fact I use Spotify's Discover Weekly AI to farm the music I both listen to for personal enjoyment and create the playlists that have made me the best playlist maker the world has ever known, it has also been revealed Spotify is producing generic tracks created by shadowy music companies and placing them in playlists under the guise of real artists, though only in elevator genres like lo-fi and ambient jazz. While this music is still currently technically made by a human production team, there is fear this kind of creation could eventually soon be completely undertaken by AI meaning musicians wont even be able to make a buck undermining other musicians.


A crude music creating device C. 2017. Credit to wikipedia.

Soon Spotify CEO Daniel Ek will not only grow a devious moustache, he will also twirl it while he types "chillwave synthgaze college vibe" and within mere moments 3 hours of pristine chillwave synthgaze with hints of misplaced moral activism and carefree sexcapades will be generated and appearing on the home page of every Spotify listener whoever so much as sneezed in the direction of the playlist. Ek would twirl his moustache right off (for the second time) as his AI music became second in popularity to only that of Taylor Swift and the royalty money rolls into his bank account, while every ambient artist is out on the street unable to sell their Yamaha Synthesizer for anything more than the retro decals and copper wiring.


But why end there?


Couldnt eventually AI move on to real genres like Astro Chillwave and Moog Jazz, or even one day the pinnacle of frisson inducing music: Emo Grunge? It seems unthinkable that music that actually tugs at our heartstrings could ever be generated by anything less than the ultimately feeling artist. And yet...


An excerpt from my AI-"assisted" Replacements 3 Screenplay draft

What AI cant do is starting to become scary. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes chit chatting with ChatGPT knows to what extent it can pontificate and wax-eloquent. I personally have started a conversation with it regarding enthalpy, only to have it whip back with a bevvy of axiomatic knowledge on the topic, far greater than your average indie musician possesses. If ChatGPT can conquer fields of intellectualism, then why not fields of passion?


Through the mass consumption and synthesis of all current music, from the depths of the human soul to the songs of the highest artistic caliber, then using the millions of unwitting human test subjects it can create and re-recreate, work and re-work its model; until it has found the perfect algorithm for making music that truly makes humans feel. This would be what is called a "singularity", or a moment when all prior human existence becomes irrelevant and we have entered a new Era (no still not talking about T-12 Swifites): the Era of Artificialis Intelligentia or the year 0 A.I.


If this happens does that mean humans will be barred from the field of creating music as AI generated symphonies of Emo Grunge pervade the airwaves causing all who hear to clasp their arms mummy style to their bodies teeth clenched while convulsing, aka the ultimate feeling of primal ecstacy?



Anima-In-Chains absolutely feeling it, credit to: gamerguides.com

Yet, there is a flaw in Ek's great plan (moustache twirling stops abruptly) .


While AI may be able to adequately work in the boundaries of music that has already been created, would it manage, from the infinite possibilities of noise, to create a new one? Despite AI immense ability to synthesize that which is known and that which has been done, it lacks the ability to truly create something that has not already been made. It could fill in the boundaries of sound as defined by other artists, but to mix two new sounds like 'trip-hop' and 'steel-guitar country'? It would be worse than shooting in the dark with the gun aimed at its own foot. To quote Man Eating Spaghetti in a lesser known role: a human being would have known you could never put the ethereal aggresion of trip-hop against the good ol fashioned folk twang of classic country*.


Phew. Looks like music is saved, but remember, you cant spell Artifical Intelligence without Art.


Peace.


*unless....





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