The man behind the renowned mouse helmet gives a positive review on the topic — in his own way.
Artificial Intelligence is showing an exponential kind of growth these days. It appears to be that coding a script to run and learn from the data it’s fed with is a very powerful tool. From the simple tasks of automated message replies and macros to the versatility that has made the latest programs explode in popularity — we’re talking generating fake voices and videos from real people, and the whole “could you write me a…” wave —, it seems to be that this new branch of technology is here to stay. And that worries a lot of people.
It’s this core aspect of AI that concerns many: the fact that these programs get better and better with each human interaction, and that, unlike us, they bring the human error factor down to nearly zero. This could mean AI would, naturally, replace humans in the aspects they perform better. Now, this optimisation, or evolution, or whatever term you find best fits the shoe, is kind of an inevitable outcome when it comes to logical skills, like processing data, perfecting steps in a digital chain, or handling multiple requests in parallel for, for instance, a webpage. But when it comes to the sentient part of mankind, opinions and doubts are much more diverse. Could a script write sentimental poetry, for example? Could a machine create a great song from scratch? How would that scenario come to challenge current musicians? We have, conveniently, the opinion of one of those musicians.
deadmau5 and AI
Recently, Music Tech had a talk with deadmau5 and Kaskade about many topics, including their story together as artists, what defines their conjoint Kx5 sound and workflow, and synthesizers. Near the end of the interview, the conversation shifted towards the imminent arrival of artificial intelligence to the music industry. Zimmerman had a say on the matter:
“It’s pretty scary. But it’s scary in the sense of how stupid music already is anyway, so it’s not that frightening. Like, ‘This thing can make a pop song!’ Have you heard a pop song? Great. Let it go. Unleash the beast, you know – holy shit would that ever open up the niche market for actual musicianship.” -Joel Zimmerman
He then goes on to add tools such as ChatGPT are “good. But it’s only as good as what it knows. It’s a huge training model, right? So take the collective stupidity of the world and make a robot fucking barf it out. It’s not gonna be that genius, but it’s gonna get you what you want.”
The artist seems to feel pretty confident musicians who truly add something unique to the flavour of their compositions will continue to shine. He is not making a full separation between human and machine, though. Recently, Kx5’s very own ‘Escape‘ was reworked by wellness-aimed AI app Endel, for a shot at a bedtime version of said track. Catch the post talking about it right below.
