Pirate's Cove

An actual interesting article that is not TDS from the NY Times

Musicians Versus the A.I. Machine. Why Bother Writing Songs Anymore?

In this era of pervasive artificial intelligence, is human creativity a waste of time? To explore, we conducted an experiment that we could use your help judging. Below are two songs, one made by professional musicians and the other by A.I. (neither plays for me, since I am using the Internet Archive version, but, I’ve heard AI songs)

Now learn about how they were created. Does it change what you think?

I’m Matt Richtel, a New York Times reporter, occasional songwriter and the ringleader of this experiment.

The idea was straightforward: Four top-shelf, lifelong musicians and I would spend a weekend in a recording studio to write and record several songs nearly from scratch. We wanted to see whether we could do better than A.I. at making fresh music. And would it be worth our time, hassle and occasional creative dispute?

I’ve read Dee commenting a few times about AI songs, and most go like the above, and he’s right: there’s no heart and soul in an AI created song. I’ve had them create lyrics, and they can be pretty good. Usually much better than Today’s Hit Music! songs. But, there’s no connection to anything, they are just words. It’s not like, say, the song Ventura Highway by America, where they say “alligator lizards in the air.” It’s a song about the 2 brothers in the band traveling with their parents in California, and seeing an alligator in the cloud formations.

And, as for creating instrument sounds? Well, still probably as good as Today’s Hit Music! songs, but, can it do something like

Maybe in the future, but, can it do it with feeling? Can it figure out just the right sound to use for the guitars, which type of guitar to use (single pickup, humbucker, brand), how much distortion, reverb, etc? Or the tone of the keyboard? Doing different things with the drums? How about the sax? Adding in city sounds? Changing up the theme then switching back? How about this?

There’s a spot in Ritchie Blackmore’s 2nd solo, after the singing, where he plays a long single note, and so many will say “hey, that doesn’t go..oh wait, it does, it’s a great bridge note to working towards and ending.” Because Blackmore and John Lord (keyboards) were masters at Music Theory, and knew how to craft music. Can AI do that? Maybe in the future it could replicate what is already out there, but, can it create?

Over the next 40 minutes, we make at least 30 songs. Suno takes mere seconds to spit out songs in genres as basic as pop-rock and as hyper-specific as experimental classical meets Japanese indie pop; Latin trap; and Italian disco. Most are not inspiring, but a few surprise. The computer has endless range. Country, rock and an uncanny ability to sound like Olivia Rodrigo. Regardless of genre, the songs embody a particular equation: Made in an instant, four minutes in length, but only 10 seconds to listen to and dismiss as “just fine.”

Well, I can’t hear them with the Internet Archive version, but, they are probably pretty basic. But, probably have the same heart and soul as Today’s Hit Music!, meaning, not much.