"We’ve been sold an odd idea; not only are we all supposed to think we can be anything and do anything, we’re also supposed to take as a given that everything should be easy. In this way of thinking anyone can make art, anyone can make music, and it ought to be easy for all of us to do so." This is interesting - I immediately thought of my days in band, growing up around folks who genuinely loved music. Those were the folks you went to and interacted with when you wanted to learn/experience music on a deeper level. "Making" music by using a few AI prompts takes collaboration and mentorship off the table. Part of doing the hard stuff of actually learning isn't just the craft itself, it's also the community that we build around the craft as well
Removing art from human generation does make sense, if the goal is to create an unthinking, easily manipulatable population. Art, like the song you posted at the end, fuels the human struggle. We struggle to make art, to churn our feelings into something other people can experience and connect to, and that in turn inspires people to independent thinking and pushing back against what feels wrong. A complacent society making brainrot on their phone and trying to be the next big thing? Those folks aren't going to form strong community and push back. The crabs in a bucket metaphor is aptly used. Thanks for this essay, I'll be sharing it with the folks in my life who aren't grasping the consequences of all this gen AI nonsense.
Seems to me that AI music isn't as much "slop" as it is STOLEN. Tech has taken the music of tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of musicians who worked hard and struggled to give us music - because they loved doing it. Then Tech has used AI and this stolen effort and mastery to now mix it up and sell us back something that avoids copyright laws and keeps us distracted from what they're doing a while longer. But if tech had had to pay a reasonable sum to each artist they stole from, AI music would never have happened in the first place.
Such a good point that we’ve been sold the idea that we could do anything and it should be easy. Seems clear to me these days that the point of is to a) keep us in a state of permanent frustration and pleasure seeking, b) force the idea that ease only comes through tech companies, and c) that output matters more than process.
I spend a lot of time tracing my hunches back to the impact of advertising in general. Remember those infomercials, the absurd people dismayed by inconveniences so minor they don’t merit solutions? I feel like they want us all in that state of mind, they want us all to feel like we just walked into a swarm of gnats.
I think a personal solution to so many “inconveniences” is to withdraw. Do less, schedule less, post less, buy less. Incidentally this produces more time to play with - more time to engage in process, like learning how to play an instrument, or learn the few visible constellations overhead - and fewer opportunities to “need” more profit driven solutions to nominal problems. More or less the moment I gave up on having a “real” career, the moment I gave up on optimizing my life, the moment I gave up on allowing inconvenience to dominate my life so much that I was eaten alive by the reckless pursuit of pretend solutions, you know what suddenly came with real ease? Learning how to play music.
This is such an important message right now, thank you.
btw, One way to tell real writers from AI are certain kinds of errors. For that reason, I was happy to read "teaming hoard" which should be "teeming horde." That's simply not the kind of mistake an AI would make. I've been considering whether I should purposefully include at least one such obvious error or non-standard construction in all my essays these days, though in all likelihood there's no need, as I usually miss *something* lol.
Please keep in mind as you shop for the holidays that t-shirts and Christmas ornaments and anything else with art on it could be AI. I don’t buy much to celebrate the holidays but I do get two new ornaments and a family member wanted a t-shirt from their favorite anime and everything was swamped with AI “art.” It took hours longer than usual to find things that weren’t AI. And it was very sad.
AI is a poison apple. Everything it "creates" is STOLEN from real artists, musicians, writers, etc. Everything. That's how the LLM were trained. They have deliberately made it attractive, and have tried to hide the devastating effect it has on water and power usage. Whether you believe in climate change or not, this is definitely a very tangible threat to humanity in and of itself. The other nasty part the billionaires are not telling you is if they can worm it into every day life they will not only replace your jobs with it, but it will replace YOU, as in many (not rich) people will die. There is a reason Elon Musk calls humans bioloaders for his AI. He literally aims to kill off what he considers to be superfluous parts of humanity. But hey, death has never been sexier, right?
Seems to me that AI music isn't as much "slop" as it is STOLEN. Tech has taken the music of tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of musicians who worked hard and struggled to give us music - because they loved doing it. Then Tech has used AI and this stolen effort and mastery to now mix it up and sell us back something that avoids copyright laws and keeps us distracted from what they're doing a while longer. But if tech had had to pay a reasonable sum to each artist they stole from, AI music would never have happened in the first place.
Great article. I loved that you mentioned the documentary Harlan County, U.S.A. as a way to understand what the fight truly looks like. There are a lot of parallels to the robber barons and the broligarchy.
Love this reminder that monetary choices are moral choices. The decisions we make with our wallets create structures that can create or destroy incentives for musicians and artists.
AI music and LLM content is really negative for those artists and creators who would otherwise earn money from helping to create advertisements. There are now less avenues for people to try and make a living while practicing a craft that they love. You don’t have to be a defender of advertising to see how bad this is for creative practice — it’s capitalism closing off another niche for people to be who they are and earn a living.
I've seen this take a lot recently and while I agree with the sentiment I think the topic deserves some nuance. Does AI art suck? yes. Is it based on stolen work? yes. Is convenience culture a terrible thing? yes.
But I wonder if posts like these are all a bit reactionary. I'd argue a lot of this was happening before generative AI. For example I think tiktok has contributed to the proliferation of shitty 2 minute songs that have a 30s section designed to go viral, or search engine optimization which has turned so many blogs into substance-less SEO bait designed to get clicks. You make this point too, that the systems are the problem, and that it's really hard to reorder those systems, and of course I agree that generative AI is making this a lot worse but still I don't think AI itself is the problem.
Anyway appreciate your thoughts here, I published something recently that's not entirely disagreeing but still arguing that we shouldn't immediately look for ways to deny AI humanity or authorship. I truly feel that AIs are not altogether distinct from whatever "humanity" is. And thus it should be possible, or at least worth a good faith attempt to bring the humanities/ social sciences to AI. i.e. psychoanalyzing AI, examining AI art from an art critic standpoint, conducting AI anthropology etc. Feel free to check that out it explains my thoughts on this stuff a bit more
They laid the groundwork for this by convincing us that music/art/etc. is something you have to be GOOD at, vs just something that humans do. You do not need to be good at music to make it. You do not need to take lessons or buy an instrument, just start singing along with the music you listen to. You do not need to be good at art to pick up some crayons and draw pictures. Or to glue sticks together into little figures.
“It’s not really enjoyable to make music now...I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of time they spend making music.”
I'd wager this specimen has spent basically no time actually trying to play and/or write music.
...
I play music. I have since I was 14. It's one of the best things in my life, and has consistently been so over the last 30 years. Despite playing for most of my life, I'm...not great at writing music. But that's okay! Not just because of the generic reality that not everyone can be good at everything, but because I have friends who CAN write music, and I get to play with them in bands. And we get to be friends. And we get to play shows for other people and in general have a blast.
So yeah, this is personal.
As for the democratization piece (which I read as the idea of making the creation of music more accessible to more people), uh...this ain't it. There are two ways that I see of accomplishing that goal for real: 1, make instruments more inexpensive so that more people can access them. And 2, give people the what they need in the rest of their lives such that that they can focus at least some of their precious time on earth to making music (and other artistic endeavors, of course.)
We've already accomplished number 1. There are more inexpensive, relatively good-quality instruments now then there have been at probably any other point in history. (That comes with a host of negative externalities, unfortunately, but that's not the point of this comment.)
Number 2 is possible, no matter what they say in the US. I'll never forget that, when I saw Opeth (a band from Sweden), a person in the audience remarked about how a state taking of its people leads to musicians who can break through and tour the world. It's just too bad we haven't found the will to similarly care for our citizens here.
It starts with rejecting apple, spotify, google music etc. And i’m nit surprised Christian and Country music are the first to score AI success, it merely confirms my ideas about the commercialisation of these genres. (In and of themselves nothing wrong with them)
"We’ve been sold an odd idea; not only are we all supposed to think we can be anything and do anything, we’re also supposed to take as a given that everything should be easy. In this way of thinking anyone can make art, anyone can make music, and it ought to be easy for all of us to do so." This is interesting - I immediately thought of my days in band, growing up around folks who genuinely loved music. Those were the folks you went to and interacted with when you wanted to learn/experience music on a deeper level. "Making" music by using a few AI prompts takes collaboration and mentorship off the table. Part of doing the hard stuff of actually learning isn't just the craft itself, it's also the community that we build around the craft as well
Totally! I owe many friendships to music.
Removing art from human generation does make sense, if the goal is to create an unthinking, easily manipulatable population. Art, like the song you posted at the end, fuels the human struggle. We struggle to make art, to churn our feelings into something other people can experience and connect to, and that in turn inspires people to independent thinking and pushing back against what feels wrong. A complacent society making brainrot on their phone and trying to be the next big thing? Those folks aren't going to form strong community and push back. The crabs in a bucket metaphor is aptly used. Thanks for this essay, I'll be sharing it with the folks in my life who aren't grasping the consequences of all this gen AI nonsense.
Seems to me that AI music isn't as much "slop" as it is STOLEN. Tech has taken the music of tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of musicians who worked hard and struggled to give us music - because they loved doing it. Then Tech has used AI and this stolen effort and mastery to now mix it up and sell us back something that avoids copyright laws and keeps us distracted from what they're doing a while longer. But if tech had had to pay a reasonable sum to each artist they stole from, AI music would never have happened in the first place.
Such a good point that we’ve been sold the idea that we could do anything and it should be easy. Seems clear to me these days that the point of is to a) keep us in a state of permanent frustration and pleasure seeking, b) force the idea that ease only comes through tech companies, and c) that output matters more than process.
I spend a lot of time tracing my hunches back to the impact of advertising in general. Remember those infomercials, the absurd people dismayed by inconveniences so minor they don’t merit solutions? I feel like they want us all in that state of mind, they want us all to feel like we just walked into a swarm of gnats.
I think a personal solution to so many “inconveniences” is to withdraw. Do less, schedule less, post less, buy less. Incidentally this produces more time to play with - more time to engage in process, like learning how to play an instrument, or learn the few visible constellations overhead - and fewer opportunities to “need” more profit driven solutions to nominal problems. More or less the moment I gave up on having a “real” career, the moment I gave up on optimizing my life, the moment I gave up on allowing inconvenience to dominate my life so much that I was eaten alive by the reckless pursuit of pretend solutions, you know what suddenly came with real ease? Learning how to play music.
Seriously!
This is such an important message right now, thank you.
btw, One way to tell real writers from AI are certain kinds of errors. For that reason, I was happy to read "teaming hoard" which should be "teeming horde." That's simply not the kind of mistake an AI would make. I've been considering whether I should purposefully include at least one such obvious error or non-standard construction in all my essays these days, though in all likelihood there's no need, as I usually miss *something* lol.
Please keep in mind as you shop for the holidays that t-shirts and Christmas ornaments and anything else with art on it could be AI. I don’t buy much to celebrate the holidays but I do get two new ornaments and a family member wanted a t-shirt from their favorite anime and everything was swamped with AI “art.” It took hours longer than usual to find things that weren’t AI. And it was very sad.
AI is a poison apple. Everything it "creates" is STOLEN from real artists, musicians, writers, etc. Everything. That's how the LLM were trained. They have deliberately made it attractive, and have tried to hide the devastating effect it has on water and power usage. Whether you believe in climate change or not, this is definitely a very tangible threat to humanity in and of itself. The other nasty part the billionaires are not telling you is if they can worm it into every day life they will not only replace your jobs with it, but it will replace YOU, as in many (not rich) people will die. There is a reason Elon Musk calls humans bioloaders for his AI. He literally aims to kill off what he considers to be superfluous parts of humanity. But hey, death has never been sexier, right?
Seems to me that AI music isn't as much "slop" as it is STOLEN. Tech has taken the music of tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of musicians who worked hard and struggled to give us music - because they loved doing it. Then Tech has used AI and this stolen effort and mastery to now mix it up and sell us back something that avoids copyright laws and keeps us distracted from what they're doing a while longer. But if tech had had to pay a reasonable sum to each artist they stole from, AI music would never have happened in the first place.
Great article. I loved that you mentioned the documentary Harlan County, U.S.A. as a way to understand what the fight truly looks like. There are a lot of parallels to the robber barons and the broligarchy.
Love this reminder that monetary choices are moral choices. The decisions we make with our wallets create structures that can create or destroy incentives for musicians and artists.
AI music and LLM content is really negative for those artists and creators who would otherwise earn money from helping to create advertisements. There are now less avenues for people to try and make a living while practicing a craft that they love. You don’t have to be a defender of advertising to see how bad this is for creative practice — it’s capitalism closing off another niche for people to be who they are and earn a living.
I've seen this take a lot recently and while I agree with the sentiment I think the topic deserves some nuance. Does AI art suck? yes. Is it based on stolen work? yes. Is convenience culture a terrible thing? yes.
But I wonder if posts like these are all a bit reactionary. I'd argue a lot of this was happening before generative AI. For example I think tiktok has contributed to the proliferation of shitty 2 minute songs that have a 30s section designed to go viral, or search engine optimization which has turned so many blogs into substance-less SEO bait designed to get clicks. You make this point too, that the systems are the problem, and that it's really hard to reorder those systems, and of course I agree that generative AI is making this a lot worse but still I don't think AI itself is the problem.
Anyway appreciate your thoughts here, I published something recently that's not entirely disagreeing but still arguing that we shouldn't immediately look for ways to deny AI humanity or authorship. I truly feel that AIs are not altogether distinct from whatever "humanity" is. And thus it should be possible, or at least worth a good faith attempt to bring the humanities/ social sciences to AI. i.e. psychoanalyzing AI, examining AI art from an art critic standpoint, conducting AI anthropology etc. Feel free to check that out it explains my thoughts on this stuff a bit more
They laid the groundwork for this by convincing us that music/art/etc. is something you have to be GOOD at, vs just something that humans do. You do not need to be good at music to make it. You do not need to take lessons or buy an instrument, just start singing along with the music you listen to. You do not need to be good at art to pick up some crayons and draw pictures. Or to glue sticks together into little figures.
“It’s not really enjoyable to make music now...I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of time they spend making music.”
I'd wager this specimen has spent basically no time actually trying to play and/or write music.
...
I play music. I have since I was 14. It's one of the best things in my life, and has consistently been so over the last 30 years. Despite playing for most of my life, I'm...not great at writing music. But that's okay! Not just because of the generic reality that not everyone can be good at everything, but because I have friends who CAN write music, and I get to play with them in bands. And we get to be friends. And we get to play shows for other people and in general have a blast.
So yeah, this is personal.
As for the democratization piece (which I read as the idea of making the creation of music more accessible to more people), uh...this ain't it. There are two ways that I see of accomplishing that goal for real: 1, make instruments more inexpensive so that more people can access them. And 2, give people the what they need in the rest of their lives such that that they can focus at least some of their precious time on earth to making music (and other artistic endeavors, of course.)
We've already accomplished number 1. There are more inexpensive, relatively good-quality instruments now then there have been at probably any other point in history. (That comes with a host of negative externalities, unfortunately, but that's not the point of this comment.)
Number 2 is possible, no matter what they say in the US. I'll never forget that, when I saw Opeth (a band from Sweden), a person in the audience remarked about how a state taking of its people leads to musicians who can break through and tour the world. It's just too bad we haven't found the will to similarly care for our citizens here.
Anyway, fuck this AI-generated "music."
It starts with rejecting apple, spotify, google music etc. And i’m nit surprised Christian and Country music are the first to score AI success, it merely confirms my ideas about the commercialisation of these genres. (In and of themselves nothing wrong with them)
An important appeal to support genuine creative work. Thank you for your coverage!