Artificial Intelligence is transforming music as we know it.
Already, AI technology has become very common in music creation, performance, learning, and streaming. So if it’s already all over the music industry – only promising to become more involved as the technology grows – then we have to start asking ourselves some difficult questions.
The biggest one of all: is AI music art?
Before we can even begin to tackle this question, there are some caveats to consider. For one, what do we even mean when we say AI music?
AI technology has infiltrated everything from lyric generation to sound mixing, so it’s difficult to pin down where the line is drawn between a human creation and computer creation.
If I bounce my lyric ideas off a chatbot and use it to refine some of my word choice, but do the rest of the song-writing and performing process on my own, then most people would say that’s genuine art.
But what if I take it further? What if I use AI to create harmonies to the melody I’ve created and let it do much of the mixing as well? Probably less people would consider that art. I could keep going with this example, but I believe the point has been made. It’s a slippery slope and a blurry line between what constitutes human work and what constitutes AI work.
In the question “Is AI music art?,” we’ve discussed the difficulties of pinning down what AI music means, but now we have an even tougher question. What is art?
If you do a quick Google search, the Oxford dictionary defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” Human creative skill and imagination. That doesn’t include AI, so case-closed. Right?
Well, as you’ll see later in this article, many people think that AI supplements the creative process and actually increases human imagination, so there is still a lot of ambiguity with what fits the definition.
But the larger problem is the definition itself. There is a whole branch of philosophy dedicated to studying the nature of beauty and art: aesthetics. An entire webpage of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is dedicated to discussing the definition of art. Clearly, this isn’t an open-and-shut case.
All of these aspects of what seems like a simple question – is AI music art? – help explain why there is such a diversity of opinions as to the answer. For the rest of the article, we’ll see what different people are saying about whether AI music is art!
On the “Let’s Talk Music” subreddit, there was a lively thread discussing this exact question. Is AI music art? There were strong opinions and good points made on either side of the debate.
u/FreeLook93 firmly stated that “No, it’s not art. I think it is antithetical to art.” A common theme in the thread was that musical ability was not an inherent trait that only some people have, but as this user said, “a thing you can learn.”
Others agreed. u/SacrificialCrepes said that “art is an active process, not an outcome,” and skipping the “heavy lifting” of the creative process takes away the artistry, “because that itself is the act of doing art.” u/SacrificialCrepes says that AI music is produced by an “unthoughtful and unintentional algorithm” that is “based on ideas stolen from actual humans.”
A key theme for those who were against AI music being considered art was that the program was stitching together music from a sample pool until the prompt was met, meaning that nothing it creates is wholly original, as u/TheBeckAsHeck points out.
A handful of users weren’t so firmly against AI music, however. u/tlollz52 said that “People want to constantly define what art is, but it’s always up to the individual consuming the image/song, etc.” They said that “if someone likes it or is moved by it, why can’t it be art for them?”
Others, like u/ILikeMyGrassBlue, are more plain about it. Yes, AI music is art, but “it just sucks.” u/TroutFishingInCanada “absolutely” believes AI music is art, but it’s “not quite good enough yet.”
A handful of famous music artists have commented on the advent of AI in music. See our other article about what the stars are saying about AI! Other artists have made their voices heard on whether AI music is art.
Hilary Hahn – the famous, Grammy-winning violin soloist – partnered with tech entrepreneur Carol Reiley to found DeepMusic.ai. The goal of their program is to augment, not replace, human creativity. Hahn herself said that, “There’s room for AI music to coexist with human composers and performers, to gracefully merge tech with humanity.”
Michele Elam, the Stanford professor of humanities and the associate director of the Human-Centered AI Center, thinks that AI can “force the art world into its own reckoning,” such as by questioning what actually counts as good art. This debate has already begun, such as when an AI portrait sold for $432,000 years ago.
Elam said that “interpretation of art is an event we co-participate in.” But not every artist takes this positive outlook toward AI music.
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave slammed attempts at imitating his lyrics using chatbots like ChatGPT. He says that while AI might be able to eventually create songs that are impossible to tell apart from original works, but “it will always be a replication.”
He says that “songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer.”
These fiery anti-AI sentiments were from an open-letter on the evils of AI art that he wrote on his blog, responding to a fan sending him AI generated lyrics in his style.
Other artists have spoken out against AI music being art. Sting, the former lead singer of The Police, said that humans will have to fight against AI to retain our “human capital.” He commented that AI music doesn’t move him like human music, just like how computer-generated images are boring compared to real filmmaking and photography.
Producer Alex da Kid, who has worked with artists like Rihanna and Eminem, uses AI to co-produce music and sees it as a powerful tool for generating inspiration and original ideas. However, while he does see AI as forward innovation, he believes you need humanity in there to have genuinely impactful music.
David Cope, who was a long-time producer and pioneer AI researcher, created numerous compositions with his Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI). He said that AI music can be considered art, because it still involves a creative process and makes work that can still emotionally impact listeners. He sees AI as simply another tool for artists to have in their toolbelt.
If anything becomes apparent from looking into this question, it is that there is a lot of debate around the answer! However, it is also true that this is an important question that will only become more central as AI technology continues to develop.
So whatever you end up believing, take some time to think about this question. Like it or not, the future is coming up fast!
