Is the AI audio revolution already here?

Pop will eat itself.
Will humanity destroy itself?
Is AI the harbinger of entropy ?

I’m a bit astonished by those of you who think AI pose no real threat to us as musicians, songwriters, and creators.

For those of you who say AI-generated music will never cause you to have goosebumps, I say that not only will it someday cause you to have goosebumps, but that you won’t even know at the time of the goosebumps that it was AI-generated.

We say that AI is only harvesting examples of music that has gone before and amalgamating it into something else. I’m sorry, but that’s basically all we’re doing as humans, too. Do you think it’s just us humans who are listening to Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel? The AI are being trained on the same datasets we are.

Here’s an immediately pertinent example to scare us all:

My wife recently went to a live concert at an amphitheater in our area. The musician was an up-and-coming artist who I’d never heard of at the time, but who had absolutely sold out the venue. HUGE crowd. When she got home, I asked my wife how the show was. She said it was good, but that the musician had lip-synced the whole show, and that the guitarist onstage was clearly not playing what was coming through the PA. She said it was obvious to her that they had simply played the album through the loudspeakers and the artist and band just mimed it the whole night. There weren’t even enough musicians onstage to cover all the sounds coming out of the speakers. The guitarist wasn’t even moving hands to match what was happening sonically.

On the way back home with the friend who she went with, the subject came up, and her (intelligent and creative) friend honestly did not realize that had happened. Some percentage of people at the show never knew. And NOBODY at the show cared at all. Nobody walked out. The crowd went absolutely crazy the whole night, and felt lucky to be there.

I’m not naming the artist, because I have since watched live footage of the artist, and it’s clear to me that the artist in question can absolutely sing her ass off live - it’s not a matter of lack of ability on her part.

We keep saying “live music with real human connection will never die!!!!!!” But I would say that’s a far more tenuous line than you may think. People go to hear “live music” for all kinds of reasons: a night out away from the kids, a chance to connect with friends and yell out loud, a chance to have low end pulse your innards with sub-bass, a chance to have a drink or three. But far fewer people are into it for the true sake of the music than you think.

It is simply a matter of time before record companies are having AI write the music, the marketing team invent the “character”, and then a casting call to find the hottest girl or guy to “play the part” of the artist and go on tour with entirely canned music and a stage full of hot stooges to shake their asses and make the crowd go wild. With the tour sponsored by Target, Monster Energy Drinks, or Bass Pro Outlet.

And sure, there will always be smaller venues that not only invite, but require more connection between artist and audience. Yes, I believe that will always be the case. But that recent amphitheater show I mentioned above? That used to be a show date with a live band and a live singer who people paid to go see. And once upon a time, Ashlee Simpson lost her career for lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live. Do you really think that will happen in the future? Really?

Still takin' it to the limit after all these years

“I had a lot more fun being 20 in the 70’s than being 70 in the 20’s.” - Joe Walsh

Adorno once said that we were all dupes who were being tricked into consuming dreck under the guise of it being innovative and trendy so recording companies could make a buck.

He was talking about Jazz. Sometimes the kids really are right.

I’m still not in the tiniest bit worried about AI.

The clue is in the name.

“Artificial”

I’m not threatened by anything artificial.

I’m the real deal - the original one and only.

(And honestly I don’t mean that in a conceited sense)

Tell me you're joking.

Please.

I think those of us who care about music will continue to care about it. Downloading mp3s in 1999 never appealed to me. But modern society has never agreed with me on music and video. If it was up to me, we'd still have well-produced, dynamically mastered music with a lot of effort put into it and the record stores to sell it. Like it was in say 1992. The average person doesn't care about that. It was horrifying for me to watch so many "true Metal fans" start downloading everything with no guilt after claiming to be these big fans who wanted the bands to succeed. The rationalizations I heard made no sense. Trips to record stores was a big thing I did throughout the 90s. When it comes to video, I preferred it when we had dedicated stores for that too. There was a bigger emphasis on quality compared to today. Once again, the average person didn't care and now all we get is streaming with a lot of so-so quality. Unfortunately, my tastes are shared by a tiny minority of people. I'd rather support a real band then to just have AI-generated stuff, but the real bands have to put out stuff I want to listen to. And the quality of new albums is just so much worse than it used to be. When I make lists of albums I bought in different years, there may be 25-30 that I really liked per year. Nowadays I'm lucky if I can find one album I more than moderately like per year. And again, I believe this is a function of the general public's taste. The bands don't put the effort in because they either don't get the support from the labels or they don't feel like there's a real incentive to. So, I see the general public fully embracing making AI stuff for themselves. Even if it's bad, it is good enough right now to serve as background music for their social media posts. When social media finally dies down a lot because of AI killing demand for it, then maybe people will crave legit music again. Of course, by the time that happens AI might be able to create 1995's Use Your Illusion 3 and complete Nirvana's catalogue as if Kurt had lived. Guess it depends on how people view community by then and if they think it's worth having one dedicated to music.

Love this stuff. Simulation theory is a very credible theory. For more. Ins bending fun look up “Holographic Universe”, and the “Many Worlds” theory.

Hey, this is like PC vs Mac .... Hardware vs Software .... round and round in circles we will go.


My son just finish a Masters degree in AI and Machine Learning (finished Cum laude)
I could log him on here and he could give proper scientific counter arguments to your points .... but come on .... there's no point because everyone is going to stick with their view.

He just sat me down to listen to his university's top lecturer on AI and I can say that after watching that lecture I'm totally convinced I have absolutely nothing to fear.
These large language model AI's are so incredibly STUPID it's actually a joke - people are simply being impressed by the reflection they are giving of data sets based on information being fed to them
they might output 2+2 =4 but they literally have no concept of what mathematics actually is.

My son has explained languague models, NN and statistical Machine base learning and honestly people are being too impressed by the illusion and veneer of intelligence. 

I'll be scared - when my son is scared 

And as for humans "creating" other humans (you call me naive) .... the "miricle of birth" is a process based on one of two very distinct paths - depending on what you believe.
Our involvement is just a very fun act 

I hope I don't sound rude or snarky - it's not my intention.

I'm only going to say this once more and then I'll drop the subject (I promise)

AI's are utterly and completely "stupid" - in the literal and full sense of that word - they offer the illusion of intelligence - "they" have no actual sense of anything
it's just the statistical based output of a large language model.

(Remember my son was taught by some of "the experts" you refer to

But yes, you're right Dr Bill .... people are easily fooled.
For a little while at least.

And some aspects of AI will be very useful and some negative as is the nature of all technology.

OK enough, back to compressors and Pre-amps - the fun stuff