Are Humans Obsolete?
This is a very broad question, given the rapid growth of the Artificial Intelligence. But as the main theme of this blog is music, this question relates solely to the domain of music. So to expand the question a little bit, it would be – Are humans in music obsolete?
I think, that the whole discussion about how the Artificial Intelligence is going to kill music is flawed from the very beginning. What these people are worried about, is not music per se, but the music BUSINESS!
In fact, is quite possible, that the computer technology and the Artificial Intelligence will soon replace majority of musicians making music for living. Especially those using computers to make music. Because the owners of music labels, and many other music related companies, don’t really care about music. What they only care about is the money they are able to generate through music. Just look who runs those companies – most of the time those are lawyers, or accountants.
We shouldn’t forget, that just up to the Beethoven’s times music composers used to be hired workers to compose music for either religious purposes, or to entertain paying customers – whether it was a medieval king, or a group of village dancers and singers. Then we’ve had about two centuries, when the position of a musician/composer on a societal ladder got raised, sometimes to a considerable hights.
And now, it seems, that the broad society is losing its interest in composers and their new music. Only a very small percentage of an elite group of the developed society is still interested and willing to support often very hard to ‘swallow’ extremes where these contemporary music creators are pushing their audience.
The proverbial bean-counters in the music business see this development and thus try to find other ways to secure their paychecks. On one side they purchase whole song catalogues of retiring musicians, so that they could milk that proven music for perpetuity. Just a couple days ago Sony Music Enterainment has agreed to take all songs of the famouse British band Queen, for an unbelievable amount of $1,27 billion! I am sure, that just to put together such a deal made quite a few lawyers and accountants very ‘happy’.
At the same time these recording companies stopped investing in the new tallent decades ago. It has become too ‘risky’ for them to develop new artists, so instead they just push few proven names until they are still productive. And than they buy them, or their estate, out.
If investing in unpredictable new music artists seems risky for investors, having computers and the AI producing “music” is, in their views, the way to go. Computers don’t need to sleep, they don’t get sick, don’t get unionized, don’t ask for their cut of the revenue.
The growing problem currently seems to be, that those AI systems have been trained on music, that someone owns copyright to, and they seem to have done it without permission. But I am sure, that this problem gets resolved through monetary means. That is why there are so many lawyers and accountants involved.
The thing is, as I suggested above, that this discussion is about business, or money, and not really about music. I strongly believe, that music is not going anywhere, with or without the AI. There will be some adjustment, but people will still love to listen to good music, and especially to play music. Famous author Kurt Vonnegut put it absolutely clearly:
The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
