As the world becomes more and more entranced by the endless creative possibilities of artificial intelligence, its potential threats to us as a species, be it professionally, artistically or otherwise, is more frequently being called into question.
Earlier this year, a band produced their own Oasis album with the help of AI, titled Aisis, in an attempt to imagine what the Gallagher brothers might sound like if they were to reform in 2023. Crafting the music themselves, the musicians turned to artificial intelligence for the vocals, generated in the style of Liam Gallagher. The results were seriously impressive -- if not somewhat worrying, considering how such technology could so easily replicate the sound of a real human being.
On top of mimicking voices - such as in this AI-generated Freddie Mercury cover of The Beatles' Yesterday - AI also has the power to write its own songs, such as lyrics. Back in January for example, Nick Cave was sent an AI track written in his own style, and declared that the ChatGPT song was "a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human".
- "Will we let the machines take the stage, or will we fight for the irreplaceable magic of human artistry?" Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page hits out at UK Government's Artificial Intelligence proposals
- “It’s ludicrous a song like that would go on an album at the height of our fame, but it got the most notice because it was so bizarre”: The Police’s Andy Summers on success, psychedelia and working with difficult people
The latest musician to show disdain towards technologically created songs is Sting, who predicts that in the future, there will one day be a "battle" between humans and AI over songwriting.
While in recent conversation with the BBC, the former Police frontman shared his thoughts as to why AI-led songs will never be able to truly replace music created by humans.
He explains, "The building blocks of music belong to us, to human beings. That’s going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI.”
Noting how AI-generated music “doesn’t impress me at all,” Sting compares the consummation of it to “the way I watch a movie with CGI”.
He adds: “I get immediately bored when I see a computer-generated image. I imagine I will feel the same way about AI making music… Maybe for electronic dance music, it works. But for songs, you know, expressing emotions, I don’t think I will be moved by it.”
