Queen guitarist and PhD in astrophysics expressed his fears surrounding the use of technology, whether in music or outside of it
There is no denying that the advancement of artificial intelligence is here to stay in music. There are several ways of using it: perfectly emulating the voices of great artists in songs they never recorded, composing entire albums from a simple algorithm execution or other more technical forms of exploration, such as “cleaning” records with noise or something like that .
Like every powerful new technology, AI inspires care. Brian May, guitarist of queen and science enthusiast — not for nothing, PhD in astrophysics —, revealed some of his concerns about the topic in a recent interview with the magazine Guitar player.
Although artificial intelligence can be applied in different areas of society — also generating possible problems — May admits that his biggest fear is precisely in the musical field. For him, there will come a point where it will no longer be possible to identify music made by technology or by humans.
“I think that this time next year, the scenario will be completely different. We won’t know which way forward is. We will not know what was created by AI and what was created by humans. Everything will be very confusing. I think we can look at 2023 as the last year that humans truly dominated the music scene.”
It would be an exaggeration on the part of Brian? He assures us not.
“I really think this could turn into something very serious. And it’s something that doesn’t fill me with joy, it makes me apprehensive. I’m getting ready to be sad about this.”
Brian May and artificial intelligence
However, not everything is negative in artificial intelligence from the point of view. Brian May. The musician from queen understands that the robustness of this type of technology “will increase the power of humans to solve problems”. The question is knowing how to balance.
“The potential for artificial intelligence to cause harm is, of course, incredibly enormous. Not just in music, because no one dies in music, but people can die if AI gets involved in politics and global domination of nations.”
Finally, the guitarist highlights:
“I think the whole thing is extremely scary. It’s much more comprehensive than anyone imagined — well, certainly than I imagined.”
Other opinions
One of the biggest names in music to spare no criticism of the use of artificial intelligence in this area is Ed Sheeran. In an interview with Audacity (via American Songwriter), the owner of hits like “Thinking OutLoud” It is “Shape of You” used fiction to say that people should be aware of the possible problems caused by the indiscriminate use of technology.
“What I don’t understand about artificial intelligence is that for the last 60 years, Hollywood movies have been saying, ‘Don’t do it.’ And now everyone is doing it. And I’m like, ‘Haven’t you seen the movies where they kill us all?’ Also, I just don’t know why you need this – if you’re taking a human being’s job, I think it’s probably a bad thing. The whole point of society is that we all do jobs. If everything is done by robots, everyone will be out of work.”
In an interview with Kerrang! Radio (via Blabbermouth), the vocalist of Slipknot, Corey Taylor, followed a similar path. For him, AI is just an accommodating evolution of other tools that correct out-of-tune voices or bad performances.
“To be honest, I don’t care about any of this. I don’t know what people are trying to prove. Are they trying to prove that computers can do things as well as people? Because if so, then what’s the point? an even worse example of technology replacing talent than I’ve been complaining about for years with the Pro Tools, tuning and using the same sounds. And people keep saying, ‘oh, isn’t that cool?’. No, it’s not cool. You are crazy?”
Another great contemporary heavy metal vocalist to demonstrate his opinion on artificial intelligence is M. Shadows. The frontman of Avenged Sevenfold, however, completely disagrees with Taylor and says he would even be happy to give up his voice so that technology can create music and performances from it.
Outside of the heavy sound, the alternative idol Nick Cave demonstrated a position similar to that of Taylor. For him, AI has nothing to do with art, as composing music is a deeply human act.
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
