Hi everyone!

As some of you may know, I like to make music in my spare time. I’m also quite fond of watching music YouTubers, and Adam Neely is a legend of the space.

Recently, Adam made a lengthy video about Suno, a new artificial intelligence technology which allows users to generate music based on prompts. Suno has caused a scurry of new AI music creation, but interestingly the resulting songs seem mostly and often uniquely listened to by the people who create it. Suno is bringing about a musical environment in which music is AI generated to taste, leaving many people feeling no need to consult any “artists” other than themselves in the pursuit of something interesting or meaningful to listen to.

This is obviously an unsettling development, but just how annoyed—or worried—should we be? It’s common for musicians to accuse AI music tools of plagiarism, since they are trained on music libraries they do not have the rights to. But aren’t all human musicians trained on existing music without the consent of its creators? Isn’t AI music just a mechanised version of what humans are already doing: synthesising other music we have heard into a new creation?

And what’s it got to do with Jazz?

To explore some of these questions, Adam joins me for today’s episode of the podcast.

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Music and Philosophy
5:17 - Can You Cheat in Music?
9:07 - What is Suno?
24:02 - Can You Use AI Musically?
31:04 - Is AI Just the New Sampling?
37:23 - AI and Inclusivity
45:04 - Is Music Becoming Narcissistic?
56:09 - Does Great Art Require Ego?
01:05:47 - Are AI Music Tools Inevitable?
01:21:38 - How Would Adam Improve Suno?
01:34:27 - Are We Removing the Humanity From Music?
01:43:02 - Is Jazz the Blueprint?

Suno, AI Music Generation and the Ego - Adam…

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