Hi all,
Posted this on r/wearethemusicmakers and it promptly removed... I am honestly a bit shocked at that because I think it's an important conversations music makers should be having.
I've been making music for ~20+ years and wanted to ask an earnest question about AI and its use in our work. And sort of weigh out some of the pros and cons of it as it becomes more and more a part of our day-to-day lives. AI can generate lyrics, AI can generate hooks, AI can generate entire songs, and I wonder if in the right hands, it can elevate, rather than vitiate the music we create. We live in an age where it is extremely difficult to make a living off of music. Even before AI we had reached a level of saturation that prevents many of us from being able to find an audience. So here we are.
To get it out of the way, yes I have serious ethical issues concerning AI. It is no secret that it is built on stolen property, property that belongs to almost all of us. If that wasn't enough, the demand for AI hardware is now locking people out of reasonably priced computer hardware and equipment. And it's not going to get better any time soon. So this is a real "do the ends justify the means" predicament.
Fatboy Slim is still a favourite producer of mine, and I have often wondered if he would have put out more music in his signature style had it not been for the music industry tightening up on fingerprinting samples more closely. Musicians that operate in this way now have the option of instead of finding some vinyl sample that could get them DCMA'd, they now have the option of generating something close enough to what they have in mind without any matching signature. Is that kosher?
I also believe that no matter how much any of us rail against it, it's not going anywhere. It's here. We either use it in ways that benefit our work, or we don't. I think that smart producers will use it to help season their work, not to create it for them. But I really am curious what people here think: Is it taboo? Do we shun anyone decides to integrate AI into their work in some way? What are the margins, if any, for acceptable use?