Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right that pure formal perfection is not the only component in art; art has to mean something. But quality has always been a very important aspect of popularity in art as well as in music (see: Renaissance sculptors & painters, Baroque and Classical composers, etc.) Great art is when a unique, profound emotion or insight is expressed with great execution. AI helps with the last part; real artists should still…
> Great art is when a unique, profound emotion or insight is expressed with great execution. Emphasis on unique
Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
131–140 of 361 posts
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#132After a lot of thinking, I have come to a conclusion that expresses me personally, so feel free to disagree if you like: The human being was not created to be deprived of the right to express his feelings through fine arts. From the moment you deprive me of the right to express myself as I feel through external as well as internal stimuli and you want to replace me with an insensitive mechanism that neither feels nor…
This tool will help people who're not musically trained to express themselves musically.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right that pure formal perfection is not the only component in art; art has to mean something. But quality has always been a very important aspect of popularity in art as well as in music (see: Renaissance sculptors & painters, Baroque and Classical composers, etc.) Great art is when a unique, profound emotion or insight is expressed with great execution. AI helps with the last part; real artists should still…
But effort itself is also a quality. The fact that a human took out a substantial fraction of their time on planet earth to create something is already a sign that at least one individual cared about the work: the creator. If art is like vomit then that initial round of validation is absent.
A videogame AI[1] (the AI itself; we're not talking about its developers here) in a FPS being invincible with omniscience and perfect accuracy, at most makes me think "nice".
But a flawed meaty human with enough skill to be the best human at that same game, makes me think "wtf is this witchcraft", with full respect and acknowledgment, and I'll have way more interest in them than in the perfect omniscient flawless AI.
[1]: Yes, I know here "AI" is not used in the same sense as in the article. The point still stands.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#134> The tune had been haunting London for weeks past. It was one of countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department. The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn the dreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound. He could hear the woman singing and the scrape of her shoes on the flagstones, and the cries of the children in the street, and somewhere in the distance, a faint roar of traffic, and yet the room seemed curiously silent, thanks to the absence of a telescreen.
Part of me worries that I am just gatekeeping.
However to me, the point of music was that its meant to put across something personal, human and emotional. Even when its a cover. Whether its a protest song, or shouting about taking someone to a gay bar. To automate that away, what does that do to us culturally?
So much of our identity comes from shared art. Emos liked emo music (you know with the shouty backing singer), goths went for death metal or the cure. Indie twats waxed lyrical about how heroine was great for the libertines.
All of that shared (mostly bullshit) memory is going to disappear, so what will bring us together, unite groups of kids with a shared like of x? Will it matter?
I worry that all the things I enjoy doing are being automated away. Perhaps this is what the weavers felt like when they were replaced with powered looms. Or cabinet makers felt when they saw steam powered power tools that sparked the arts and crafts movement[1]
I also frankly worry about how my kids are going to make money.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_Crafts_movement#Criti...
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#135In "Brave New World," all the music is made by machines. We are approaching that dystopia. For me, much of the pleasure in listening to music lies in appreciating the virtuosity of the musicians. It's like watching a great tennis player or a great dancer. You admire their skill and grace and technical mastery. For me, listening to music made by machines would be like watching robots playing tennis, or robots dancing.…
Unfortunately for many people music is nothing more than 'something to play in the background'.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
This tool will help people who're not musically trained to express themselves musically.
Its not self expression when something else does the expressing.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't think this will lower the barrier of entry for music creation?
NO, it will lower the barrier for music generation, which is different from CREATION, which implies a creative act.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are people going to become professional musicians if it stops being a career?
Becoming a professional musician isn't a "right" of any kind. You don't have a "right" to be paid to do anything you want. You're certainly allowed to do it (barring outright criminal activity), but don't expect to be entitled to monetary compensation.
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
What “privilege” is required to learn to play guitar? Was Jimmy Hendrix privileged? Robert Johnson?
Hand and finger privilege. It's much harder to play if you don't have hands or fingers!
Re: Google's advanced music generation model and two new AI experiments
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every tool that makes it easier to create art is good in my book. In years past you had to actually have the instruments and had to know how to work them. Now you can much easier learn to use simpler tools to get even better results, which just increases the amount of people that can actually realize their creativity.
But part of the whole point of listening to music is enjoying the expression of the people playing the instrument. Music is much more than just the final output of a machine, it's an expression of the soul. You may be able to create music more easily with this tool, but I guarantee it will be soulless, just like Google. The results certainly will not be better. They will be a hideous amalgam from a computer. Just lis…
I've heard soulless music performed by highly trained musicians playing on great instruments. And soulful music played on crappy instruments by untrained musicians. On average, the great music comes from the more trained musicians on the better tools.
AI is just another tool. The vast majority of music is terrible. It will continue to be terrible. And a few geniuses will use AI the way Hendrix used the electric guitar. I'm excited to hear what that will sound like.