AI Insanity

[Gray Wolf]

Good discussion. Here's where it all started. On a lark, I prompted it to make a country song about the frustrations of tech support and people not reading user manuals, and it spit out the following gem ...

Read the Manual, Please

I just created my own song on Songer – Read the Manual, Please

songer.co

I paid $10, the mininum payment, for credits to unlock 3 songs, so I could unlock the full length of that one song. The example that started this thread was just me burning one of the two remaining song credits. Not bad end results for $3.33 a song.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Not bad end results for $3.33 a song.

Not bad at all! I thought it was hilarious, actually.

It should be designated as the official on-hold music for tech support call lines

 

[TDF1981]

We don’t need to look at this from an artist‘s angle but from the business perspective of Spotify, Apple Music etc.: not too far in the future your personal playlists will consist of your favourite music plus AI created music that fits that taste and is generated on the fly or pulled from a massive collection of already generated copyright and royalty free music for which nothing has to be paid to anyone anymore. Of course, there are people who care and love music, but your average coffee place or gym might just want some background music and doesn’t care. That music is for a mood, not about anything we would regard as art or expression of the human existence.
I have started to make my music less perfect on purpose now, also Atmos is my new favorite format because it will take years until an AI will create a decent Atmos mix.
As an Artist I find this problematic and intriguing at the same time as I imagine there will be less real musicians in a few decades but those that remain will be absolutely great. Hopefully.

 

[Gerran]

Good discussion. Here's where it all started. On a lark, I prompted it to make a country song about the frustrations of tech support and people not reading user manuals, and it spit out the following gem ...

That's indeed quite impressive although a "gem" I wouldn't call it. It's pretty much what I would expect with a prompt like that, but nothing more. And there, I think, is the key. It's just what you would expect, there's no surprising progression, clever wordplay, inspiring guitar play or... It generated just that what you've asked it, and admittedly it did a good job, but in music, or more generally speaking, in arts, I like to be surprised, amazed and enchanted with more than just delivery on demand. That's when things start to sparkle like gems 8)

 

[sintil8]

Gets my vote +1 for the tech support hold the line music.

After listening tho' I was left with that, 2 day's after your birthday feeling, yay, when the plasticine has lost its colour and it's all one brown lump.
Perhaps the folk in the elevator music industry will need to adapt to find other income streams.
My 2 cents, Juxtapose that to when AI does a live gig or goes out on tour?

Regards to all

 

[Jemusic]

What happens when AI starts listening to AI generated music. What might happen is it self destructs maybe. I doubt it will get better. When humans listen to good music it inspires us to write good music. Other way around.

 

[Craig Anderton]

in music, or more generally speaking, in arts, I like to be surprised, amazed and enchanted with more than just delivery on demand. That's when things start to sparkle like gems 8)

So far, I don't think AI can do that. Art comes out of experiences. I don't know how AI could experience climbing a mountain, falling in love, going from 0 to 60 in a sports car, having a fantastic coq au vin for dinner...

What happens when AI starts listening to AI generated music. What might happen is it self destructs maybe.

That's why I think AI will never be able to get rid of hallucinations, it's quite possibly inherent in the process. Paradoxically, this could be helpful to artists if AI represents an ever-lower lowest common denominator. It will make our stuff look fabulous by comparison

My main concern at the moment about AI is the bottom falling out of the sync/licensing market. It is (was?) the last place where recorded music could result in significant income.

 

[Larry Jones]

Throughout what I euphemistically refer to as "my career" it's been axiomatic that you have to tour if you want to create the kind of fan base that makes you a big star. So now I'm picturing what that will look like as AI-generated "music" takes over the world: The "artists" will be not those who can sing, write, play an instrument, etc. They will be people with a particular knack for prompting computers. They will flood the airwaves and the streamers with stuff that sounds almost exactly like music, and it will deeply affect the teen to 40-ish demographic, who will choose faves and want to see and hear the "performers" for themselves, in person.

Lifelike humanoid characters will be generated, with personalities, backstories, social media accounts, fashion styles, and so on. Their "concerts" will be televised only, of course, and "the kids" will watch and listen in their homes on wall-size flat panels (tickets will be only slightly less expensive than LiveNation currently charges, but the TVs will come down drastically in price). These will be mind-blowing extravaganzas of light and sound, impossible crane shots, intimate backstage moments, "perfect" musicianship, except for the rare, programmed "mistake," to make everything more real. Naturally, concert-goers won't get to meet possible future sexual partners at these events, but everyone will be satisfied with this "experience."

I will be playing three hundred dollar gigs (plus beer) in dive bars with whatever four-piece or five-piece band I am able to put together from among my older musician friends. This will feel pretty much the same as it always has to me, playing and singing to occasionally appreciative small audiences while the Bowies, Springsteens, Pettys, et al pack 'em in at stadiums just up the road. I expect I will love every moment of it.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Lifelike humanoid characters will be generated, with personalities, backstories, social media acco

That's already happening: virtual concerts, and a ton of AI influencers. They never age, can post 24/7, never need makeup or wardrobes, don't join unions, don't ask for royalties...

Job security in the future will be plumbing. I don't know of any AI entity that can fix a clogged kitchen sink

 

[Larry Jones]

. . . already happening: virtual concerts, and a ton of AI influencers.

Craig - Have you actually seen any of these fake "musicians" or influencers? In my fantasy above I was referring to AI generated characters that would not require such an extreme suspension of disbelief. These "people" look they just arrived from 1996. If the kids are watching this stuff, they are doing it the same way George and his friends were watching Susan Canby in 1964.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Have you actually seen any of these fake "musicians" or influencers?

Yes...this is all AI-generated, images, music, and video. Sure it's vacuous, but it looks pretty refined to me. And "her" "music" is on Apple Music and Spotify. Check out "her" website. And "she" has a Patreon account...I think that's pretty nervy.

 

[Larry Jones]

I admit she looks real, in that short-clip, vertical frame kind of way, but I don't see her singing on a stage or in a dramatic music video. Still, looking at the comments, it seems the boys don't care if she's real, even if she's writing checks her "body" can't cash. Personally, I'd be a little put off by a woman with a "™" after her name. This is my long way around saying virtual bands and influencers might be happening now, but they ain't "happening."

PS: I've seen Lil Miquela on TikTok, and I'm not buying what she's selling either.

 

[Craig Anderton]

Well, it might be a short step from holograms incorporated in concerts to holograms being the concert. I won't go any further down this rabbit hole (no matter how tempting it is!), but Larry, all I can say is you're not the target demographic

 

[SwitchBack]

Oh, there's galaxies between science and science fiction Still, AI has a serious impact on the music industry (to stay with what this forum is about) whether you like it or not. It will perform all the routine work and all tasks following (e.g. music theory) rules. But it's a big step from doing a lot to doing everything when ingenuity is asked for. So instead think of a world where your (and every other composer's) music ideas are realised as soon as you can express them. Will it make you have more top-notch ideas? You almost have to, to keep up with everyone else.

 

[Larry Jones]

Oh, there's galaxies between science and science fiction Still, AI has a serious impact on the music industry (to stay with what this forum is about) whether you like it or not. It will perform all the routine work and all tasks following (e.g. music theory) rules. But it's a big step from doing a lot to doing everything when ingenuity is asked for. So instead think of a world where your (and every other composer's) music ideas are realised as soon as you can express them. Will it make you have more top-notch ideas? You almost have to, to keep up with everyone else.

Agreed. The impact will be huge, going toward profound. It can already make believable, fully instrumented "recordings" of songs based on your typed prompts. It's an incredible toy, and it's bound to get better. For now it's being trained on real songs, voices, lyrics, compositions, etc, so there's an issue of how (if?) to compensate the original creators, or how even to identify them. I can't imagine a way. But if it gets to the point where a lot of it finds its way into popular music, movies and TV, the AI machines will digest that as well, and start producing AI music based on AI music, once, twice, three times removed from the real thing, like a mirror facing a mirror. What a peculiar world that will be!

 

[SwitchBack]

Not too long ago (hey, some still do!) song creators would travel with dictaphones to capture ideas for riffs, themes, text doodles and whatnot. Then back home the work would start, playing the tapes back, building a song from the bits that fit together, add two more verses, think of a genre, instruments, a finished product…

With AI the app is your dictaphone and more: You talk, sing, play to it and share your thoughts on what the finished article could look like. And when you get home there will be a few versions waiting for you, all checked for plagiarism, sheet music ready for all the instruments used in them. Your riffs and/or words will be in there but now as a (nearly) finished article. And if something’s off or missing you simply tell it to incorporate that too (3 options), much like talking to the ship’s computer in Star Trek. So, science fiction may become science after all.