WILL AI DESTROY MUSIC MAKING?

Video killed the radio star—will AI finish the job, or could it help future musicians?

- Neal Sawyer

What is AI? AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is a computer simulation of human intelligence. As Phil Tee, CEO of AIOps company Moogsoft highlights, we already use it in our daily lives. "You have AI on every device you own, from your Apple watch to your smartphone."

Truth is, for many years, the music industry has put AI to use. Ever asked a smart speaker to play a song? Or ever streamed Spotify's new DJ AI, which plays music catered to your exact taste? This is AI at work.

So maybe Terminator 2 was catastrophising AI in true Hollywood fashion. Tee continues: "The truth is very mundane. It has absolutely no self-awareness or intent, it’s no more malicious than the car in your garage. And, at the end of the day, every computer has an off switch!”.

Technology drives musical innovation

So, in the words of an AI expert, there's nothing to fear just yet. What's more, we need to remember that technology in music is nothing new. In fact, the past has looked kindly at the early innovators.

Born out of Birmingham in 1963, the Mellotron was one of the first mass-produced sampled keyboards. The Beatles adopted the revolutionary sound in no time. A mere four years later, in 1967, the whimsical, dreamy tones were prominent on “Strawberry Fields Forever”, a song that helped to spearhead a psychedelic movement.

Talking of The Beatles, music writer Rob Bowman said "one of the two most influential bands in the history of postwar popular music" alongside the Fab Four was Kraftwerk—a band who embraced a full electric soundscape, changing the course of pop music forever.