To those who fear AI taking over Art
We have too much soul to let AI take over a creative process. We will always have too much soul to fully surrender anything to AI. AI is trained on the past, we are living in the present and wonder about the future. Whether or not AI will ever become “sentient” is a metaphysical and spiritual question that science evades. In order for art to have any meaning, there must be a soul to give and receive meaning. It is valid to be terrified of AI-powered military weapons and the inevitable global need to rise to standardized weapons, but it is irrational to be afraid of being left behind by AI as an artist. If you are afraid of AI taking over creative processes, your soul has not been backing your creations. Those who are waxing philosophical on AI taking over art perhaps have not endured–or are evading–the deepest pain, happiness, love, frustration or any emotional turmoil that drives art.
So, my advice to musicians/artists thinking about working with AI: go out into the world and LIVE. Find the organic sublime in nature and be present, so you have a baseline of what it feels like to be human. Then shall you feel with your deepest intuition that AI will never take human emotion and creativity from us. Take a deep breath, there is nothing to fear. AI is a new technology, while we have spent most of our lives being who we are and set in our ways and needs, and we will always –perhaps in nuanced ways– look to our humanity to express ourselves. There is so much beauty in human-directed, technology-assisted art that we have yet to explore. Embrace AI as a tool to expand your creativity. There is so much you can automate that allows you to think of new ways to express, and your humanity will still be intact. But before you even face AI tools have you even made deep lasting connections with humans in different modalities of relationships? Family, partners, friendships, audience, performer? Good art intended to be received is a two-way street, there is an exchange of understanding, it requires your ability to empathize, to share, not a masturbatory self-serving dump of a concept of technology unto others. Quiet your ego, seek to connect with others, and you will find that it is ridiculous to imagine AI can attempt to single-handedly give us meaningful art and music.
In my own journey with Music & AI, I have been giving AI a role as significant as one instrument in a symphony. It is there, it contributes to the process, but it does not define the whole texture and color of the music at any point. The brain is a complex system. Can I imagine AI making creative decisions as I do? No, because I am living in the present and experience unpredictably beautiful and terrible things everyday because I am a human being who chooses to live deliciously. Cute thought but AI could never be me.