AI thinks I'm dead

And other happy thoughts

Me and my brother Conor

Growing up, I listened to and played so much music of distinct genres. On piano, I played Debussy, Chopin, Beethoven, and Jingle Bell Rock. On the radio, cassette tapes, and TV, I heard The Fine Young Cannibals, the Indigo Girls, Ennio Morricone, Max Roach, The Sound of Music, Lauryn Hill, Peter Gabriel, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Living Color, Zap Mama, and Aerosmith to name just the tiniest random selection from a list that goes on for days. Due to the fact that I listened to and played so much music, I often felt like my hands had ideas for what would sound good in a song I was writing before my thinking brain (at least the part that knew the names of chords, etc.) did. Even now this is true. When writing at the piano, my hands just go places. They go to chords, arpeggios, rhythms, and modes because I have music in my body. My muscle memory is faster than the part of my brain that learned the names of things. For example, I might be playing in a Lydian mode long before I know I am. Or, I’ll play clusters of notes and I won’t know what chords they are unless I stop and analyze the notes. However, before I analyze them (which I may never do unless someone asks me to), my hands know the clusters are going to sound good. I guess this is because my body learned music by listening to and playing it so often.

This is a little bit how I think about AI. At least it’s how I think of AI in terms of songwriting and music-making. AI is like me and all the music I have inside me times a billion (or some amount). AI has inside it all the songs and music that it can scrape from the internet. It doesn’t have hands, but similarly it can mix and match and add different musical ideas to the songs it makes. It has so many musicians’ and songwriters’ work inside of it that at some point, I can’t imagine how it won’t be a comparable or better songwriter than me (or any songwriter). It will have so much more musical experience than any one musician could possible have. It won’t have felt anything writing or playing music. It won’t worry over whether it is telling the truest of truths, or painting a picture with sound, or making people feel something, but it will be a force. It already is a force.

Sometimes I have hesitated to post songs here on Substack because I want to keep a little something for myself. Perhaps this is silly. In the end, I do just post them. Part of me has a fear that I will post a demo and then AI will release a more polished version of my new song before I do and I won’t be able to stop it. This fear got started when AI created a RIP video about me and Gordon Lightfoot (who is dead). After numerous attempts to get YouTube to take the video down, I realized I was quite powerless against big tech. If I can’t reach a tech company to convince it that I am alive so it will take down a video claiming I am dead, how will I be able to make sure AI doesn’t take a song that is mine and change it before I release it? How do I make sure I can at least be the one to release it first?

I don’t mind being paired with the great Gordon Lightfoot but I’d rather be alive

Why does AI think I’m dead? I don’t know for sure. My theory is that AI did a scrape of the internet and somehow confused me with a British ballerina (who did die). I haven’t shared the link publicly until now because I didn’t want to give the YouTube channel any views, however, now I think the best way to get it taken down is for more people to complain. If you do watch it, please report it. Also, you have my permission to enjoy it because parts of it are kind of funny :)

How do we think about AI and songwriting and all of the changes that are happening so quickly in our world? This is a discussion we could have for months. For now I will simply say this: If we think of songwriting (or any kind of art making) as something we do to connect to our humanity and to each other, we will never stop doing it. If we think of it as a process we enjoy and learn from, instead of a product we aim to perfect or sell, then it becomes more precious to have human-written songs in an age when AI can write them. The experience of writing a song IS a deep learning experience, a way to know oneself, a way to clarify one’s feelings and thoughts. Even if you are writing about someone else or a fictional person, you learn by thinking about what’s the best way to tell that real (or fictional) person’s story. It’s a way of standing in someone else’s shoes. Writing a song develops emotional intelligence, empathy, and deep attention. (This does not address art and compensation. That’s another post ;))

I know I won’t tell our girls not to write songs because AI will do it better, or not to play music because AI can do it better. We will do it because it’s fun, because we can do it together, because we can do it with our friends and neighbors. Maybe AI will help us, but we’ll still make music in our living rooms, in churches, in theaters, clubs, and schools and any ol’ place we’re invited

Love,
Anne