Imperfect

sickening ai music

Inspired by Pavan's AI music is incredibly frustrating.

Pavan wrote:

I like to listen to DJ sets or mixtapes on Youtube while I am working. But lately there is so much AI music that it makes me sick. There is something about AI music that my brain recognises and it just does not feel right.

For clarity, I understand "AI music" as music generated by tools like Suno, Udio, or other alternatives. Sam's In defense of AI slop? showcases a prime example:

Oliver used an AI band called The Devil Inside as an example of musical “slop,” but I was intrigued by the sample he played. So I sought out the band’s material on Spotify. And it’s… good. Not every song is a winner, but some of their music is fantastic, like “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Riders of the Midnight Storm.” Their music is more consistent than many living artists, and I’ve had them on repeat for days.

Like how Sam shared songs that fascinated him, it would be nice if Pavan shared songs that sickened him. In the memetic words of Mac from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Oh my God! That's disgusting. Where?

Knowing what Pavan specifically finds sickening in AI music would also add depth to this exchange and others like it. From my own AI music listening, hinted at in multimodal ai laziness, I figure Pavan's unease may derive from how uncanny and telling it can be:

Common gripes include off-putting voices and vocal melody giveaways that I hear even in songs that Sam referenced.

Even if AI music doesn't make me sick, it hasn't yet slotted into my library. However, I suspect its chances of success to increase over time. Like how quickly personal taste can change, AI's generative capabilities continue to rapidly improve. It's only been a few years since an AI system generated the first iteration of the Will Smith Eating Spaghetti test. Behold how much more realistic Veo 3's rendition from 2 years later is compared to the original clip.

Whether by evolving personal taste or musical quality, prepare yourself in case your perception toward AI music changes. Parallel the foresight from within my call to be kinder to robots:

At 12:00 in this Google DeepMind podcast episode, Redefining robotics with Carolina Parada, host Hannah said:

I think it's kind of a good job sometimes that these robots don't have feelings because it'd feel very forlorn, just being chased around on a table by researchers.

How would her opinion change once these AI-augmented robots started having feelings?

Back to Pavan, how would his opinion of AI music change once it stops making him sick?

In the meantime, Pavan prescribes this:

As a result, I have stopped listening to any set that is less than a year old. I only listen to music and sets older than 2024. So 2024 is the year online music discovery died for me.

While I hope his new listening habit pans out, I wonder how much happier he would be with better curation. Could he interface YouTube or other music providers in ways which minimize AI music exposure without rejecting novelty? In Going analog to combat digital distractions, Samuel even goes as far as to appreciate vinyl records:

The same goes for listening to music. Listening to a record is a more active and intentional experience compared to just consuming music from Spotify as a background.

I think Pavan's call for community also gets closer to a more fulfilling and less overzealous solution:

I hope we form communities of AI-less art and using AI in art becomes a taboo. Commercial art is dead anyway, let's preserve the real thing.

With how many musicians and musical tools involve AI or automation in their processes, I find "AI-less art" a hard goal to reach. The "AI-less art" label also gives undue attention to unwanted stimuli, like how certain AI badges make people sought by ai. Neither point has to stop him or anyone else from striving toward that goal though.

What communities can you find or build that embrace "the real thing" for you? In a world full of sickness, you would be surprised at how discoverable rejuvenating spaces are for any particular interest. Hubs thrive for "AI art" or "AI-less art", "personal art" or "commercial art", and any other fascination. Make yourself at home within them.

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