During my daily routine worrying about our future late stage capitalism dystopia, I was reminded about the ever encroaching black hole generative AI has on human creativity. As a musician, not only do I have to worry about the existential dread of trying to pursue a creative dream in a world where the only thing that matters is how well something can sell, but I now also have to worry about the fact that our capitalist overlords have managed to figure out a way to make money off of art without an artist.
In music school (and I assume those in other fields of art learn something similar), one of the questions that is answered very early on is "What is Music?" When I went to school, before the AI craze happened, this really was a topic that was covered to prevent a certain elitism that can happen in both musical and non-musical circles in regards to people who had an obsession with calling anything they disliked 'Not Music'. In the 1800s after Beethoven introduced the Romantic Period, music historians liked to call non-European music "Not Music". Now, we have "Influencers" such as Ben Shapiro's esteemed "Music Theorist Father who went to music school" claiming that rap isn't music. Really, not much has changed in 200 years, as it seems the motivation is still a thinly veiled attempt at racist gatekeeping.
Now, what I was certainly not expecting, was to ever find myself in a position where I myself would be saying "This isn't music". Of course, my reasons couldn't be more different than Shapiro's. Going back a bit, I need to explain the definition that my music professor's gave to me as to what music was:
Music - A collection of sounds organized by a person
Now, this definition is pretty broad, as it should be. The reason why, has to do with why music is defined this way. Because, music ultimately is meant to be listened to. It is the shared emotional message from the composer and performer to the audience and listener.
When I listen to music for enjoyment, I tend to focus mostly on the meanings that I receive from it, and the meanings the composer is intending for me to receive. If you have read anything from Aaron Copland, you may be familiar with this being the "Expressive Plane" of musical listening. Following that, being a musician I of course, can never stop myself from engaging in musical analysis (The Sheerly Musical Plane) while listening as well, but I try and force myself to not do that too much because it can take away enjoyment.
But getting back on track, When someone asks an AI to generate sounds for them, it isn't actually music. It isn't created by the person. Those sounds are organized by a machine. The person didn't even make the machine either. So how can that person claim it as their own? Maybe they, in their prompt wrote "Write a piece based on X meaning" but still, it isn't them creating it.
So when I listen to anything that is AI generated, it feels soulless. There's not a person speaking to me anymore. There's no human emotion being created. It feels like a forgery. And while forgery's can be very close to imitating the real thing, they can never be truly real. An AI will never be able to give me what I am actually looking for when I listen to music. I won't ever be able to, as a listener, make a connection to another person that way.
The fact that, regardless of this, AI is yet becoming more and more popular is saddening to me. It just goes to show how many people only view music and other art forms as merely a product to be bought and sold. That our enjoyment of art can be taken so lightly that it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of society. It feels like we are in the process of loosing something extremely dear to us but many people do not realize it.
In 10+ years, will we be able to tell the difference between what is AI generated and what isn't? The answer isn't yet certain however it presents new issues. It leaves people such as me, behind the wayside. And from a composer's perspective, why should I share the music I make if it will ultimately be used to contribute to this issue regardless of my consent?
Because of this I lament. A society that practically does not have any art will be a very boring one.
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