Sounds boring. Maybe inevitable, but boring nonetheless. I’m glad that music isn’t heroin to me. I am indeed looking at this from an artist’s perspective. That the whole point.
But I’m sure you have a point. There are plenty of people who will easily be duped into thinking that “better” art boils down to the perfect algorithm. At some point perhaps someone will "discover " the value of the heuristics of the human artist like young people “discovering” avocado toast.
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Fuck yeah, Daren. That’s exactly what I feel like. It’s weird that someone who was such a raver, so stimulated by the “promise” of technology (and live electronic music) has become so disenchanted. I’m speaking of myself, here.
I don’t give a rat’s ass what Zuckerborg thinks “human connection” is supposed to look like. I’d rather be working at a physical place with at least a couple fun people in it, and walking home along a small shopping street and to have a daily laugh and a smile with a couple shopkeepers and gardeners I see along the way.
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Bahahaha 
THIS! 
Well said.
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Yup, growing up in the 80’s I looked forward to the promise of a future with flying cars, robot helpers, most of the worlds problems solved, clean, optimistic, efficient…
Reality today
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We’ll open a private club, no bots permitted. Not to worry. It’ll be happening as shit with all us old meatbag geezers.
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I’m that jackass that doesn’t pull up the QR code menu at a restaurant. Not because I’m incapable but because I’d rather keep a person employed and sidestep the tech creep.
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Restaurants will be slowly phased out. Your allotted cricket and soy worm protein packets will be delivered by AI drones each month.
Rock on.
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Ha, same here. Also
“Sir, you can use the self serve checkout if you want to”
“Oh, How much discount do I get for the wages saved by the company and for doing the job of the cashier?”
{bemused look}
“If I and everyone else you helpfully ask did, next year none of you will have jobs, I’ll wait thanks”
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Yum!
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If they do pickled onion flavour all bets are off.
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If ol’ K Schwab has anything to say about it, I think you’re in luck…
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But when we free up humans from doing lame things like talking to customers, we’ll all finally be “liberated” to engage in more noble artistic pursuits…
…like binging more TikTok and mutual identitarian navel gazing… 
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I hear what you are saying…you seem to have thought about this a bit. I’m genuinely curious about this.
If I’m watching a public performance, I want to witness what I KNOW to be the causal connection between the human performer’s emotional state and the sonic/visual/sensory media emanating as a direct result the performers gestures/choices/inputs. This has been the “hot topic” in our little world of hardware electronic music from the get go. On social media, real-time MPC beat makers probably garner more engagement than us “sequencer players”, I would reckon.
I think there is a practical limit of code/AI/automation which can execute when an “audience recognized act of input from the performer” translates into a real-world output. I think the best artists will carefully find a way to maintain this link.
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I think main question will be if humans themselves, clients, and customers, actually start to prefer AI over the human. Let’s say for whatever reason virtual reality becomes basically our daily reality, then in that case and space yes, the AI is perhaps indistinguishable from the human and probably no one will know the difference.
That’s already happening now with virtual concerts, but these are sort of a supplement to everything else an artist is doing.
The real question will be if the celebrity factor can be won over by AI, and whether or not fans adore AI artists in the same way. We all adorn our artists in some way, whether it’s as a teeny bopper fan, or as a beard scratching academic. Will the AI be enough to feed those hormonal and chemical desires that we often don’t speak about? Will AI be sexy? Funny? Can it do a cool interview? Does anyone care?
Again I think if it’s virtual it might not matter. But if the physical world still matters then until the robots arrive I’d say your jobs are fine.
People like humanness, the virtual is sort of wearing out it’s welcome lately I think, and I often think Virtual Reality is just a kind’ve bubble fantasy of Silicon Valley, it’s just an R&D thing that never seems to be able to get legs. People want to connect with people not live in a dismembered virtuality. It’s like a cross wiring of what cyberpunk fiction presents as something remotely desirable or possible, versus the actual reality.
I know in certain scenes like, using Ableton is sort of frowned upon - like because it’s virtual anything is possible. But endless possibilities aren’t necessarily interesting, and the roughness and mistake laden factor of the human mind and abilities is actually interesting. I’d rather watch an Indonesian monk bang on a drum than go to a virtual AI concert any day.
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Now, at this moment there is a limit. But true AI as far as we know it doesn’t exist in it’s true form, it’s ultimate form.
You and I will be long dead before AI control and conditioning will be indistinguishable from what future humans will think of as their own emotional state.
Future humans will be raised and conditioned from birth by algorithm. Think of how things have changed in just our lifetime. Depending on how old you are of course.
I have lived as an adult in a time with no internet, no personal computers, no cell phones, and no information on demand. My idea of entertainment growing up was a Friday night 2 hour blockbuster action movie with no CGI effects. Today the youth are consuming endless 1 minute videos in the palm of their hands and socialising in a metaverse of their own creation.
What will another generation bring? Or two? Or three?
Music for me growing up was anything from 4-5 piece rock bands, soulful singers over rhythm and blues based ballads, to Rhythmic American Poetry spoken over remixed and resampled classics.
Today hyper-pop and a gazillion other genres keep emerging, in many ways foreign to my sensibilities, although intriguing as a music maker.
My own music listening enjoyment has gone from spinning vinyl records, to tapes, cd’s, then MP3 players, to online services and on-demand. What will be after that, and after that?
Facebook knows what times of day you use the bathroom. Amazon ships items you are interested in to nearby warehouses before you decide to buy them, just in case.
What will a person, moulded by an unseen and constant AI influence think is ‘authentic’ or ‘real’ when it comes to music 5 generations from now? Would it even be recognisable to us today?
Will speakers or earbuds even exist if technology can vibrate your inner ear structure through focused particle beams?
Again, I have not in any of my posts advocated for any of this, I am not speaking to its morality, it’s artistic value or anything of the sort.
But one cannot deny that if the industry can use these AI tools to manipulate the future consumer to their benefit, monetarily and/or culturally, they will.
I use AI in my music making every day. I have an AI based sample browser that evaluates my large sample collection into various searchable categories beyond simple labels, keys/scales, BPM’s, and the like.
It’s very handy. It’s already got me.
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the world won’t even be around long enough for AI to take control so don’t even worry about it, buy another beatmachine because you deserve it and have fun
Which team is more efficient? (Hint: apply the laws of thermodynamics.)
Which is why we only see teams of Amish on every single build site every place where barns, houses, and commercial buildings are being built.
Thermodynamics wins again in an industry driven by profit.
Do you have some insider information you’d like to share?
Just give any advanced AI an Octatrack to try and learn without the manual.
It’ll either stop it or distract it for long enough for us to pull the plug.
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