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A singular view of human creativity as AI encroaches
I’m a fan of Steven Wilson (he’s been described as the best UK musician that nobody has heard of!). He recently posted a lament about the AI threat to human creativity, a sentiment surely on the minds of many reading this post today.
I thought I would post his heartfelt concern and add my own commentary about the future of human creativity in the AI Era. Here is Steven’s post:
“For the last few years, when I’ve been asked in interviews about the future of music, I’ve talked about a scenario I fully expect to happen whereby musicians wouldn’t be needed anymore, and neither would pre-recorded tracks.
“Music will be made in real-time for listeners by artificial intelligence depending on their requirements at that moment. You will choose the singer that you want to sing the song for you (Freddie Mercury, Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, whoever), the subject matter you want them to sing about, and the musical genre. And it will generate that piece of music for you in real time, at which point you can choose to save it away for a future listen, share it with your friends, or erase it.
“For me, things just took a big step further in that direction with several artificial intelligence-created Steven Wilson tracks that have been brought to my attention. I don’t know who created them or what their motivation was, but even I really struggle to hear that it’s not me singing these songs.
“No matter what I might think about the quality of the music, this is uncanny, almost surreal. We’re in the midst of a seismic change in the way music is made and how people engage with it. Do the majority even care that they aren’t listening to a human being? The future bites indeed.”
Does the future bite?
Of course, Steven Wilson is correct, and this on-demand custom content will be here sooner rather than later. What does this imply for the future of human creativity?
I recently went hiking with an AI / innovation expert, and we had an intense conversation about this topic.
