The implications of AI

[Zeuhlmate]

Will "our" music be affected by AI? Will anybody want to have AI practise on Thinking Plague, Yugen, Egg or King Crimson, etc.?

I wouldnt be surprised, allthough something is happening:

Music labels sue AI song generators Suno and Udio for copyright infringement

https://www.theguardian.com/music/ar...gement-lawsuit

[JKL2000]

These two companies should merge and be called Sussudio!

[MudShark22]

These two companies should merge and be called Sussudio!

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum....php?p=1239506

Sent from my NE2217 using Tapatalk

[moecurlythanu]

These two companies should merge and be called Sussudio!

[wilcox660]

Bill Bruford once said "I can make more music than anyone can steal."

[JKL2000]

Bill Bruford once said "I can make more music than anyone can steal."

He was wrong, wasn't he?

[JKL2000]

These two companies should merge and be called Sussudio!

Sue! Sue Sue Suno and Udio!

(Except it's pronounced You-dio. I'm so sick of these stupid, simple names for software! Not that they need to be long, but they've become like dumb car names.)

[JKL2000]

I watched the video. To me, the vocals all sound like there's a strong, non-stop chorus effect, but I feel pretty accustomed to that in pop-music. Or at least, we're conditioned to expect an unnatural sound. While watching the video, I find the vocals unpleasant, but if the music was playing in a store or something, that probably wouldn't register, and the songs did sound good enough that I'd just happily hear it in the background and shop like I'm supposed to. A lot of the companies like Muzak must be screwed, or having to pivot bigly. I can see that most of the pop music produced these days could easily be replaced by this stuff pretty soon.

But, I can easily name a lot of music that's hard to imagine being produced by AI - we all could. I think...

[battema]

I can't feel threatened about losing an audience I never had, nor losing revenue I never received. That was true long before AI came along.

Are we worried that audiences won't be able to tell the difference, or are we worried that they won't care? Do I think folks who like Yugen and Thinking Plague are the sorts of consumers who blindly listen to whatever is put forth? Or are they the types who hear something they like and research to learn more, dive deeper into an artist's catalog? And if they discover the artist is just an AI, would say "oh well, I'll support blindly and stop listening to Yugen and TP?"

I feel like we're wanting to somehow extract a collective social promise that we'll all not listen to or like anything that happens from AI. I think that's futile.

And if we're worried that fans in little communities like ours at PE will shift their support away from artists because of AI? I just don't think that is probable.

In my day job, AI has serious implications both bad and actually good. Anyone who tries to keep their head in the sand and pretend it's just a fad is going to be in trouble. But here in an oasis like this, it's not really something that feels deeply concerning or relevant to the same degree.

[Dana5140]

battema: I am not sure I agree, though I taker your point. The problem is, we are viewing this through a limited lens- AI has implications well beyond music- I know comic artists concerned about AI, my son is (he does marketing, which could easily be replaced by AI), etc. Authors are worried, musicians are worried and we are just listeners. But if our artists cannot find work, we do not get to listen.

[Rarebird]

Like Picasso said: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

[bigbassdrum]

Artists I could see integrating AI in some form:
Todd Rundgren
Peter Gabriel

[Rarebird]

Artists I could see integrating AI in some form:
Todd Rundgren
Peter Gabriel

How about Brian Eno?

[battema]

battema: I am not sure I agree, though I taker your point. The problem is, we are viewing this through a limited lens- AI has implications well beyond music- I know comic artists concerned about AI, my son is (he does marketing, which could easily be replaced by AI), etc. Authors are worried, musicians are worried and we are just listeners. But if our artists cannot find work, we do not get to listen.

90% of our artists already can't find work, if we're being honest. Most of us have day jobs for financial support.

Now, some of our day jobs may be impacted as well...but if that happens, I would strongly, STRONGLY discourage anyone from trying to turn a fringe musical passion into a brand-new viable financial support structure in 2024.

Artists I could see integrating AI in some form:
Todd Rundgren
Peter Gabriel

I'm already seeing some artists "collaborating" with AI to generate new works. Not the sort of derivative copycat stuff that most of us think about, but trying to generate something uniquely new. IMHO results are mixed at best, but I absolutely expect some gems to surface in due time.

Brian Eno is another "big name" whom I expect has a favorable outlook on AI.

[battema]

How about Brian Eno?

Great minds think alike Yep, definitely Eno.

[Lopez]

Like Picasso said: "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

With some relevance here, Stephen King was once asked about accusations that he steals plots from other authors: "Yes, I steal, but I only steal from the best."

Back to AI, if AI were to replace everyone in the arts, why are companies springing up that "fix" AI? A publishing colleague has started just such a company that will take AI-generated material and correct and polish it so that it's true and makes sense.

[battema]

Back to AI, if AI were to replace everyone in the arts, why are companies springing up that "fix" AI? A publishing colleague has started just such a company that will take AI-generated material and correct and polish it so that it's true and makes sense.

Most of the best use cases I've encountered for AI are the unsexy ones. For example, using sentiment analysis on chat assistants. Who among us hasn't felt our blood pressure increase exponentially as we've vented at a bot that is insufferably chipper and happy to repeatedly provide the wrong answer? One option would sentiment analysis to detect the difference between "I'd like to track my package" and "WHERE THE HELL IS THE PACKAGE THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE 2 WEEKS AGO" and route the latter to a human more quickly...as well as inform that human about just how pissed the user/customer is at the moment.

And whatever else happens, AI isn't going to replace ME (with all due apologies to my detractors ). Until someone makes it illegal to NOT use AI, I can and will continue to make my Boring Old Human Art to share with my fans. And my fans are exactly in my sweet spot: they enjoy what I do and are willing to exchange a few bucks for it, AND they're not so weird and OCD that they'd start searching out AI versions.

And as to the "what about working musicians?!?" question? Here's my $0.02. Take this sentence:

"______ is undermining the ability for artists to earn a living from their work."

Any of these will be accurate:

AI
Streaming
The death of physical media
The LiveNation/ClearChannel/Ticketmaster monopoly
The Visa situation for international touring
The apathy of modern consumers
The devaluation of music as a monetary commodity
John Battema
The sheer amount of pirated music on YouTube
The incredible volume of artists both pro and amateur competing for the same finite attention span
The whole goddamned music industry paradigm

And so on. AI isn't the first "threat" to artists, and it won't be the last. Unless AI turns sentient and decides to go all Skynet on our apathetic asses. In which case, I'm changing my screen name to Sarah Connor and going out with the first wave

[chalkpie]

This AI shit scares the F out of me - not for me - but for my children. Mostly the job career/impact....

[Zeuhlmate]

It is also about your Identity. You identify yourself with the music you love. And with the guys who created it. Will that still be possible in the future? Is there a nagging worm lurking?

"The issue of "authenticity" is such a weird can of worms. Westerners get obsessed with it."
David Byrne

Interesting if the labels can do anything:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/ar...gement-lawsuit

[battema]

OOOOOH....you know what I can absolutely, totally see happening??

AI-driven remasters and remixes. Albums that maybe have lost multitracks or simply weren't recorded well...I can see labels taking a swing for one last bite from the physical media apple and having an AI generate pseudo-stems or multis, or even go ahead and literally use those to generate completely new mixes and masters.

Assuming I'm right for half a second, if that were to happen I would HOPE that labels would be explicit about what was done. But I can absolutely see larger labels trying to leverage AI to generate new demand from their legacy catalog.