Artificial Intelligence & Music

For the longest time, music and other art has been seen as the representation of humanity. It has been seen as something truly human and something that only humans can create. However, as we advance forward in this technological golden era, we are starting to see more and more assistance from machines and computers to make creating music easier and more expansive. Now, artificial intelligence is starting to make its’ way into what once has been considered the true human expression. Algorithms that can scan millions and millions of pieces of data in the blink of an eye, can now not only figure out what types of melodies and sounds humans prefer, but it can write them as well. This is taken a step further with projects like Skygge’s “Hello World” album. This album uses an algorithm that studies various melodies and chord progressions and writes songs that it predicts would be popular. It then creates the instrumental parts of the song using MIDI effects and writes the lyrics using popular word searches. The only human interaction is when a singer is called in to record on top of everything else. Another example of the progression of AI’s interaction with music is involving the Sister City Hotel in New York City. The lobby of Sister City Hotel uses an AI system in collaboration with Icelandic singer Bjork, to measure barometric pressure, cloud density, and bird migration to choose appropriate music for guests. Essentially, it will tailor the music played in the lobby to the weather and feeling outside.

The advancements of this technology also causes some worry among the music community. They fear that delving further into this technology strips the soul and passion away from the creative process.

As an avid lover of technology, I do however find myself wondering the same. And now, I would like to ask my readers this question:

If humans are the creators of Artificial Intelligence, is AI truly taking away creativity from humanity? Or perhaps humans are taking away creativity from humanity by limiting ourselves?

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