Do I Need The Computer to Sing For Me?

My thoughts on AI in music

A couple of weeks ago, my best friend sent me an album that she was really excited about. The album was a mammoth, clocking in at an hour and 36 minutes with a 26-song track list. I love music and I love my friend, so I hit play to see if it would live up to the hype. After the first song, I knew that this album was going to be a favorite of mine - thoughtful lyrics, catchy melodies, and multiple vocalists with perfectly crisp vocals. Every song surprised me, each surpassing the last as the best. After about 10 songs, I couldn’t resist - I had to know the voices behind this masterpiece.

I did a quick Google search to meet my new favorite singers, only to be presented with a sole creator. The maker of the album admitted that, yes, the entire album was created from elaborate AI prompts. This person said that they had the idea for the album for a long time, but never had the money or resources to properly source musicians and singers to bring the vision to life. With the help of the almighty AI, they were able to free the songs that up until now, had only lived in their mind.

I was exasperated. It felt like being tricked. I was reveling in these songs, eager to find the lyricists, vocalists, and producers who were responsible for creating magic. Finding out that these songs were actually only computer-generated made me feel foolish for enjoying. AI is becoming stronger by the minute, and people are using it to no end. It’s being used by companies to replace their workers. It’s being used by people to replace their therapist. And now, it was being used by me, to replace my greatest inspiration: singing.

Art is about connection. When we experience art, it roots us in the perspective of someone else. We are hearing someone else’s story, we are witnessing someone else’s joy, we are wiping someone else’s tears. We are being taught about someone else’s life. We are reaching for the hands of those who have come before us, and holding the hands of those who stand on earth with us here and now. We are together through time and space.

Do I need the computer to sing for me?

Do I need the computer to dream for me?

I don’t need a computer to teach me to be human. I need YOU to teach me to be human. I need you to teach me about love, about heartbreak, about joy, about God. No computer can feel what you feel.

No computer has ever bled before.

No computer has ever been held by its wife.

No computer has ever drank hand-squeezed lemonade on a Georgia summer day, and no computer has ever been so embarrassed that it felt its face burn hot.

No computer has ever been scared to make a choice, and no computer has ever been disappointed by a loved one.

No computer has taken a road trip with its older brother, and no computer has ever wept during a church service.

No computer has a favorite song, or a favorite color, or a favorite shirt, or a favorite flower.

No computer has ever worn its grandmother’s earrings.

No computer has ever said goodbye to someone they’d never see again.

No computer has ever decided to switch its hairstyle.

No computer has seen its mother cry.

No computer has asked for a raise at work, no computer has been nervous to talk to their crush.

No computer has danced with a handsome stranger on a sweaty dancefloor.

No computer has stayed up all night at sleepovers with its cousins.

No computer has ever felt loneliness visit them on a cold and dark night.

No computer knows the relief of being forgiven for a mistake its made.

No computer has spent a little too much money on a pair of shoes it really wanted.

No computer has baked a cake with its nephew.

No computer has brushed its teeth before bed, and no computer has a skincare routine.

No computer has ever wanted to be a tennis player, or a firefighter, or a dancer.

No computer knows what it’s like to break a bone, or to be so tired that your heavy eyes can’t stay open.

But you have. And you do.

I’d rather listen to you.

If we let AI steal the joy of creation - of music, film, television, books, and painting -then what does that leave us? That leaves us more time for labor, more time to do more, to produce more, to increase capital. Does my human heart beat for nothing else? Can my body enjoy the leisure of imagination? Can I relish in the freedom of imperfection? Is my singing worth nothing? When a flower bursts through the ground - which is a miracle in itself - is our duty to figure out how to make the process more profitable?

“But in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?” - Kazuo Ishiguro

I don’t believe AI has any place in art. I believe that we already have everything we need to make music that is meaningful. I believe that in art, we should care less about efficiency and more about empathy. I can empathize with your human experience. I cannot empathize with AI.

As always, I have to leave you with a song. “Will The Computer Love The Sunset” by Jesse Welles asks a beautiful question, and I hope when you answer it, you remember the value of your personhood. Have some claim over your humanity. We cannot give up the best pieces of our world to the computer. It could never love it like you or I can.

Photo by Thong Tran on Unsplash