Yoshimi Battles the AI Music Robots

Artificial intelligence has pervaded almost every interstice of our daily lives. While some deem it helpful to summarize book plots or write dull emails, others think AI to be the beginning of the end for humankind. The most recent grisly invasion is the “robot-ification” of music. Artificial intelligence programs are being used by companies and individuals to circumvent the process of actually making music by having a computer generate generic sounds. Some have even furthered this approach and manipulated popular musicians’ voices to make “new” tracks that artists have never released. Aside from the legal legitimacy and ethos of these tactics, AI music is lacking in emotion. When creation is removed from the process of art, is the final product really artistic? 

The process in which AI music is created is akin to the metaphor of a snake eating its own tail. Artificial intelligence programs are trained by experience, and the experience available is music made by human artists. Now, if hypothetically, AI music becomes the majority of the input, or the programs are learning solely off other AI generated music, every “song” will sound exactly the same. Either way you cut it, AI music is simply a lifeless replication of music you have already heard.

One of the main arguments behind AI music creation is that users genuinely believe they are still making art by running these programs. But, when we consider the process of making music, everything from the lyrics to the bassline, to the drumbeat, to the final production of a song; it is all man made from trial and error. There is no process of creation when a computer is stealing preexisting melodies. You are pressing a button, at best.

The rise in popularity of AI music seems entirely profit driven. The belief that people make art for the sole purpose of making it is generic and not applicable in every case. However, the vast majority of people who play instruments, make beats, or produce music are not making a profit, and there was never the intention to do so. Humans make art because it is emotionally expressive, something a computer cannot compute or fabricate on its own. 

Music has been, and will continue to be, a timeless vestige. It is how stories have been passed down, history has been preserved, and emotions have been felt by people you have never met. How validating does it feel when you hear a song that describes your emotional state, one you could never put into your own words? AI could never construct the lyrical rage felt by System of a Down, or the melodic hypnotism of Khruangbin. Art is one of the many fragile strands that connects the spider web of humanity, artificial intelligence is the kid who sets the web on fire with a lighter.

Hey, do you like real music made by real people? Check out our online store. 100% AI music free, guaranteed.

Photo courtesy of Ian Moir