AI Generated Music

[ndrosen]

I read an article mentioning AI-generated pop music; apparently, AI can generate formulaic pop music, which, if not great, isn’t worse than similar music composed by humans. There is an issue, it seems, with the people owning the AI collecting royalties because (I am not giving any advice about intellectual property) you’re only supposed to obtain a copyright on something which you created, not something which a computer created.

It got me thinking: could a more advanced AI generate cantatas and organ fugues which sounded just as if they had been composed by J.S. Bach? Symphonies that Beethoven didn’t get around to writing, but which could have been his work? If we find the music beautiful, would it matter that it was the product of a neural network or a set of algorithms, instead of a man of genius?

Comments

[warriorsavant]

A key feature of modern pop is repetitiveness, so easy for AI to generate. (No, I'm not being "the older generation," this has been analyzed.) Interesting point you make about intellectual property. I suppose one could argue that I built/programmed the computer system. Would be an interesting one for the courts.

I wonder if AI imitation of a musician (or for that matter a writer) would be any better or worse than having a human imitate them. There's always controversy about those, like when a new writer either completes a work from notes that were left, or creates an entirely new work, in a series. Usually, they are pretty awful.