A.I. Is Here! What's your opinion?

I know I'm probably really late to the party, but I just stumbled across an artist from Finland who creates all AI generated music in the styles of old artists. His project is called Unreal Rock Songshttps://unrealrocksongs.bandcamp.com/ He's also very prominent and increasingly prolific on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@unrealrocksongs

The music is really good--really clean, professional, and nuanced though with a modern production "austerity"--and it's all original and all AI! Part of me wants to run for the hills, but part of me is intrigued--and entertained! I guess I'm finding out that my bottom line is: I just like good music! I want to promote hard-working musicians who are striving to create great music, but now if you can have ChatGPT do it for you . . . why not?

What are your thoughts and feelings?

Edited by BrufordFreak - 10 hours 34 minutes ago at 06:09

What Greg said...

I will not view AI art or listen to AI music. I don't fear it. I just have no interest in it whatsoever. A huge part of "art" for me is a human connection. I want to preserve that link between humans, and I only want to "consume" the feelings and creativity of other humans, as old-fashioned as that may be. For that reason, I just choose not to even start with AI. I don't care if it's "good" or not. There is so much great human art to appreciate that one can only scratch the surface over a whole lifetime.

That channel is de facto a scam. Yep. You heard me right. Scam. If you go to their bandcamp, you'll see that they're actually selling this content.

I can play Devil's Advocate here, sure. I can see it as a toy. But as soon as monetizing this type of content comes into play, that's a red flag for me.

Edited by Hrychu - 8 hours 34 minutes ago at 08:09

Hi,

The side of it all is how some corporate folks want to replace people (employees) with some AI, figuring that it would cost less ... and I think there may be a comment on this idea. As Frank Zappa said ... "there has to be a song somewhere in there!"

1. The company got too big!

2. The code artist doing this is getting back at the company that would not hire him/her and pay them!

3. The whole idea is not exactly honest, as far as I can tell, and the music example above is scary ... and reminds me of that computer thing in California at one time, that folks thought was really good, until a couple of days later, they were told it was a computer ... and the hatred started up! Nobody ever heard from that group again, and what they did, and I would not be surprised if they lost all kinds of grants and moneys.

4. The educational value of teaching MUSIC in schools is gone. Specially in America where one political party has spent the last 50 years taking money away from all the arts and making sure that it is not available in the schools, since the arts are often known to be too liberal for that group's politics, and chances of winning more elections ... so they rely on folks not "knowing" or not "having" any idea of what the arts can do and have done for many years in the Western World ... this is not the case in a few other places where the arts are heavily controlled.

5. Our own understanding and appreciation for the knowledge that it took to create the AI, is a problem ... we now see it as a problem, when before it was exciting research!

6. One guy in busking in the big house, will immediately replace people/employees with AI, because in the end it is cheaper ... and that turkey thinks that the AI will not need regular maintenance and work. Very naive in my book, but this is more about "control" and the "power" of being so rich that no one can stop it any more, and on top of it, the media loves it, because he likely owns a serious percentage of it anyway! Same thing happened when Disney picked up ESPN, and the fun went out the window within the year ... we all watched ESPN for the fun and the antics ... and all of a sudden it was cheap jokes, and dry, cold and boring news ... and no fun!

7. The grass is always greener on the other side, and hate it or not, we will not go to the polls and get rid of the folks making sure that the AI folks get in to the big houses!

8. Go ahead and hate it ... what are you doing about it?

Edited by moshkito - 6 hours 10 minutes ago at 10:33

BrufordFreak wrote: I just like good music!

Wow!!! There's a lot of vitriol in this thread! But I'm inclined to agree with you on this statement. I haven't yet listened to the music, so I can't judge it at the moment. But I'm not one who will automatically judge the music as bad simply because it was written by AI. However, I do think the proliferation of music generated by AI does tend to cheapen it. In particular, if the Unreal Rock Songs project is prolific, then does it maintain originality among its output? I don't want to hear any artist, AI or not, produce more-or-less the same music over and over again.

I prophesy disaster wrote: BrufordFreak wrote: I just like good music! Wow!!! There's a lot of vitriol in this thread! But I'm inclined to agree with you on this statement. I haven't yet listened to the music, so I can't judge it at the moment. But I'm not one who will automatically judge the music as bad simply because it was written by AI. However, I do think the proliferation of music generated by AI does tend to cheapen it. In particular, if the Unreal Rock Songs project is prolific, then does it maintain originality among its output? I don't want to hear any artist, AI or not, produce more-or-less the same music over and over again.

Hi,

I'm not sure it is vitriol at all, and sometimes, the reality is scary and the fact that we do not know enough about it, is even worse.

The harsh side of it, is the news about it, is usually mentioned as if it was something evil ... sort of a beneficial Childhood's End ... and we will not know much about it until it is way too late! Arthur C. Clarke for you giving us an idea of AI, and us not knowing anything about it. In his story it was aliens.

I'm not sure that AI is going to be able to create music, like a human does ... unless someone figures out how to scramble all the notes and chords, and find a way to tell the AI brain to make it listenable and musically valid. I think this "thinking" part is what is going to hurt it the most.

But the hard pat, is, how do we know it is AI or not... and we do not have any idea how to determine that, and we could, already have a lot of it around us ... I kinda look at "progrock" as mostly AI, since it does the same format way too many times, the solo is always in the same spot, and the drumming is not as good as a metronome, and does not help the music be better ... it's like you or I telling each other that none of the musicians in a band know how to count, and they need a drummer hitting that snare drum a thousand times in one evening, so we know we are in the right place in the music ... that is a suggestion that the folks are not listening to each other at all ... they are just trying to maintain the beats together ... and we think it is great music, when in essence, almost a lot of it is totally against any composition taught in school or university ... in my book, a really good version of AI!

I don't know ... sometimes I'm glad I won't be around to see how all this frames out in 50 years ... the whole thing is so inhuman and scary and we keep voting for those folks ... I can't help thinking that we simply have no idea what is right or wrong, or that the folks we think are good for government are actually crooks or not! We have to get better in that area, so a few liars don't get by ...

It's like the crossroads ... how do you know which road in this juncture to take when you ask the devil or the dishonest person? I don't think most of us have any idea how to deal with that in a positive way ... hopefully it is better than that!

I have my doubts, and this is the area why I trust new music instead of the copy of a copy of a copy of a copy in all the listings everywhere!

Edited by moshkito - 2 hours 15 minutes ago at 14:28

AI is still far from ideal, in fact much of it is obviously generated and not great. I've noticed glaring errors in AI text & data, so we may be assuming too much and giving it too much credit when it is simply artificial product.   I see AI as a tool in the way synthesizers were fifty years ago.   Nothing more, nothing less.

I suspect human product will be around for a very long time, if not forever.