If A.I. took the place of musicians, would you listen to it?


A few questions which I'm curious about. If you have a take on this, please share!

Here's the question:

A.I. is increasingly playing a role in music creation. Not just assisting composers, but generating music.

If you found an A.I. generated song to be enjoyable, interesting, etc. would you have any objection to supporting it by listening and paying for the service which provides it?

If more and more music was like this, and there were fewer and fewer jobs for musicians, would that bother you? -- I'm thinking here about the aesthetics of the issue, not the economics or justice of it. 

I'm trying to understand if people just want to have a certain set of sensations from music and they don't care if there are human beings creating it -- or if it's important for you to know that what you're experiencing from music (or art) is coming from human beings.

Thank you for thinking about this.

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If I cannot go see them, him, her perform the music I will not be supporting that music. There is far too much excellent new music being made and at our fingertips to not support these artists. I have been a musician most of my 60 years and know how hard it is to create something that touches people to their core. AI will never do that in my lifetime. Thank God.

Interesting question indeed.

Back in the 60’s a group of studio musicians who were eventually referred to as “the wrecking crew” provided the early musical background for The Byrds, The Beach Boys, The Doors (?), and who knows who else.

Audiences who saw those groups had no reason to believe the musicians onstage didn’t record those songs that they loved. Does that classify as deception?

An 80’s band whose album I really liked usually played with a drummer I admired and respected. However, I read a few years ago they used a drum machine when recording the album. I was seriously conflicted as to whether I still liked the music as much knowing that bit of information (I saw them touring the album with the aforementioned human drummer).

In my mind there are parallels between AI and these pre-AI occurrences.

Guessing that only humans can create something truly “new and unique” makes me inclined to dismiss AI as a viable, long-term listening option.