Topics: US News, Taylor Swift, Music, Artificial Intelligence
A musician and producer who has worked with Taylor Swift shared his blunt view of the use of generative AI in media.
Jack Antonoff is a singer-songwriter and music producer who has worked with some of the biggest names in popular music over his career, including Swift, Lorde, Pink, Sabrina Carpenter, and Lana Del Rey among many others.
Music is just one of the many art forms which is being impacted by the advent of generative AI, with AI-generated tracks starting to appear online.
And like many artists who have spent years practicing and perfecting their craft, Antonoff has made his feelings about generative AI and the people who use it crystal clear in a journalist entry that he shared to his social media page.
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In the post, the 13-time Grammy award-winning musician called the act of learning and making music an 'ancient ritual', and said that 'optimizing' this process completely misses the point, and the 'magic', of making music in the first place.
“You don’t have to write music, you don’t have to record it and you don’t have to bring out the band and play it," he wrote.
"And yet for us, the idea of optimizing what we do is a complete miss of the entire point of what compels us in the first place. We (myself, the band and everyone I know, frankly) have never been looking for this work to become quicker or easier.
"We were never frustrated by the randomness and magic it takes. We do it for that exact reason – and without the process itself ::: nothingness.”
He went on to describe the act of creating music as coming 'from God', and reaffirmed his commitment to keeping on making music.
Speaking directly to people who use generative AI, he said: “So to everyone who is gassed up about the new ways you can fake making art, by all means drive right off that cliff.
“We’re genuinely happy to see you go. Generations coming will be engaging in the ancient ritual of writing, recording and performing as it comes to us from God."
He added: "So as we embark on this strange detour where the bad actors will willingly reveal themselves through slop, and the struggling great will be further spread thin to make an honest living doing what they were put on Earth to do, we (myself, the band and frankly everyone I know) remain more dedicated than ever to reveal what comes from within."
Antonoff called making music 'holy', which it has been both figuratively in community, and literally through thousands of years of human history, whether it's polyrhythmic drumming, ragas, plainsong, or any number of other musical traditions around the world.
He concluded: "Writing music, recording and performing it — that’s it. Nothing more embarrassing than considering there is a way to optimize that holy process.”
