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from the is-it-live-or-is-it-Auto-Tune? dept.
Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve has become a woke, sanitized shell of its former self. The crowd of rowdy, inebriated locals and tourists is long gone. What you see now is bouncing and screaming for the latest flash-in-the-pan artists while industry veterans like Duran Duran barely elicit a cheer.
Youtuber and music industry veteran Rick Beato recently posted an interesting video on how Auto-Tune has destroyed popular music. Beato quotes from an interview he did with Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan where the latter stated, "AI systems will completely dominate music. The idea of an intuitive artist beating an AI system is going to be very difficult." AI is making inroads into visual art as well, and hackers, artists and others seem to be embracing it with enthusiasm.
AI seems to be everywhere lately, from retrofitting decades old manufacturing operations to online help desk shenanigans to a wearable assistant to helping students cheat. Experts are predicting AI to usher in the next cyber security crisis and the end of programming as we know it.
Will there be a future where AI can and will do everything? Where artists are judged on their talents with a keyboard/mouse instead of a paintbrush or guitar? And what about those of us who will be developing the systems AI uses to produce stuff? Will tomorrow's artist be the programming genius who devises a profound algorithm that can produce stuff faster, or more eye/ear-appealing, where everything is completely computerized and lacking any humanity? Beato makes a good point in his video on auto-tune, that most people don't notice when something has been digitally altered, and quite frankly, they don't care either.
Will the "purists" among us be disparaged and become the new "Boomers"? What do you think?.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday January 09 2023, @02:32AM (10 children)
Essentially the same complaint is in a century old rant about player pianos!
Look, musicians, deal with it. Painters had to turn to impressionism and abstract art when photographic realism absolutely destroyed realism in paintings-- and that happened about 170 years ago now.
My mother wanted me to be a musician, like herself. But when I was a kid, I heard a marvel. An Apple II computer was able to play any melody you wanted, perfectly, without having to spend hours practicing and years learning an instrument. I realized computers were only going to get better, much, much better, and so they have. Pianos? They're trash compared to an electronic keyboard. Only thing a piano has over a keyboard is that it doesn't take electricity. Pianos go out of tune, and faster if not played regularly. They take huge amounts of space, they're heavy, and expensive, and lacking in the many features a keyboard has.
As for painting, screw that, I'm skipping right past film cameras to go straight to digital cameras, the GIMP, Inkscape, online libraries of pixel art and images and all that, FreeCAD, LibreOffice Draw, and whatever other graphics tools I know about. No, I have never used Blender, but I hear it's fantastic for animation.
As for the rest, yes, the AI/Robot Apocalypse will happen. It won't be an apocalypse though, and I think it won't come as fast as the fearmongers fear. It'll be a Good Thing.
One of the problems is the thinking around copyright. (You didn't think I was not going to take a swipe at (c), did you??) Some artists scream that pirates are robbing them blind. It's a very poor way to look at things. The ability to copy is a tremendous gift, not a problem. It's like complaining that daylight is a problem because light bulb manufacturers don't get as much business. Further, maybe, we shouldn't use artificial lighting at all, or at least, far less than we do. Copyright has a lot of artists and others bamboozled into thinking that a work of art can be owned in the same way a car is owned. Think they have a right to dictate to all others how "their" art shall be used. These complaints about AI are in the same vein.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @02:50AM
It's legal for an artist to copy another artist's style. They would be looking at references while doing that, possibly hundreds of them. Getting AI models and DreamBooth outlawed would require some hail mary lawyering in front of the Supreme Court.
Artists are throwing money at groups like the Concept Art Association [torrentfreak.com] in a desperate bid to kill AI art. We'll see how well that works out for them.
(Score: 2) by deimios on Monday January 09 2023, @06:12AM (2 children)
The purpose of copyright was to assure compensation for creators so that they are encouraged to create more.
Now it became more about control.
You cannot stand on the copyrighted shoulder of giants.
Still we have nothing better right now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @12:39PM (1 child)
"The purpose of copyright was to assure compensation for creators "
So why aren't there more rich musicians and authors?
The purpose of copyright was to eliminate copycats diluting the revenue stream of publishers
who bought manuscripts and music rights to create artificial scarcity
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @01:19PM
As a knowledge worker, it's almost impossible for me to get any recurring benefit for the knowledge I create. It is owned by whoever paid my one-time wages. In that respect, the creative industry is better off. When I started I figured I could work hard and get a few patents that would supplement earned income, but really that doesn't happen. Corporations trade licenses to use intellectual property, cutting knowledge workers out of any financial benefit from their work. But I get to wear my own clothes on casual Friday. Yay.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @12:47PM (2 children)
"Pianos? They're trash compared to an electronic keyboard."
Get back to me when a collection of computers can play as a jazz ensemble
Improvisation is communication between musicians, not a player piano roll.
I just watched the 50th anniversary King Crimson documentary.
There are still bands out there that never sound the same i performance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @01:38PM (1 child)
How was the documentary? I watched the trailer for it yesterday and it looks interesting.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @05:24PM
Summary:
Being in King Crimson is as much fun as working for Apple under Steve Jobs
You are a master of your craft and Fripp is a cruel task master
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @01:10PM (2 children)
Music's nice and all but I wish they would focus on sex robots. We can eliminate not just the workers, but an entire sex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2023, @05:28PM (1 child)
Just remember bro, you can be replaced with a turkey baster and a sperm bank.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10 2023, @03:17PM
Somebody gotta clean the turkey baster. I've always got a job.