Artificial Intelligence in Art and Music

I have to be honest with you, I am not a fan of any of the AI generated art and music I have come across.

Art (and I’m just going to lump music under that big umbrella) has always been a deeply personal experience for me. Something has to draw me to a piece of art that hits me at an emotional level. My favorite photos and paintings do this. My favorite pieces of music do this. The piece has to go beyond a simple, “Oh, that’s lovely.” response. Most pop music fails that, for example, as does all of the AI content I’ve seen emerge.

Beyond being simply personal to me, however, that which really adds to my enjoyment of art is an appreciation (even if there is sometimes a lack of understanding) of what the artist was trying to create, a message or theme she was trying to convey. If I can see that in a piece of art or hear it so often as in music, then I have a chance of making a connection to the artist. That ability to be touched by another human being is very special. AI can never do that. This is why AI output is viewed as “soulless”. AI systems are algorithmic and no matter how good the output may appear, they are mimics at best. For that reason alone, I avoid paying any attention to AI content as an artistic endeavor.

Jason Mraz, one of the hardest working musicians around, shared his thoughts in an interview and it is a refreshing take from a songwriter’s perspective.

“I always thought songs were for the human experience and songwriting is for the human experience. Songwriting is our birdsong. Singing can deliver a message and have it heard so much further than just a spoken message. A message sung can ring out and ring out for generations. So why diminish that or dilute that? Why take that quality away from us because a computer can do it fast? Hopefully, a human will still be singing it, but I know there’s great A.I. that can also sing the message as well. It’ll be a good business for somebody, but I don’t think it’d be a good business for humanity overall.”

The greatest human experiences in music for me, of course, are live music shows. I want to go see humans making music, not a bunch of robots playing pre-recorded, pre-programmed fluff. A live band can never be replaced by AI.