The start of AI usage in any industry is a scary one, raising questions like what will it mean for the human workers? Will we be replaced by robots? Is Arnold Swarzenegger about to come from the future to kill us all? All valid questions of course, but it's easy to forget that we have something that AI doesn’t: creativity.
Whilst we are still learning about what AI can do and the implications of that in our society, AI will never be able to replace humans, especially not in creative sectors. Our ingenuity and the rate of our creative change (especially with social media) means that AI will always be a step behind because it relies on us to teach it all our new inventions, linguistically and scientifically. AI should not be feared - it’s just another instrument to learn how to play.
Caribou has been one artist who has ventured into this unexplored territory, partnering with AI to produce his new album, Honey. Using AI to modify his voice, Dan Snaith weaved his manipulated vocals into his songs in the same way that artists might normally use samples. Indeed, this use of AI does seem like another instrument in an artist's hands, much like auto-tune, but is this going to replace collaborations with other artists? Especially as Snaith turned his own voice into a female one in a vaguely creepy way on tracks like 'Broke My Heart'.
However, as the album only received two stars from the Guardian, maybe Caribou’s album isn’t the best example of an AI collaboration, and maybe he would’ve actually been better off collaborating with other artists on these tracks. But that is not to say that AI has no future in music. The Serpentine North Gallery, for example, are hosting a choral AI show, The Call, composed by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, which could be more promising.
Regardless, AI is raising its head in the music industry, and it's up to the artists to make what they will of it.
