There are some very clear and just criticisms of AI generated art. For instance there are the copyright issues (see https://www.theverge.com/23444685/generative-ai-copyright-infringement-legal-fair-use-training-data for example), the race issues (see https://futurism.com/dall-e-mini-racist or https://www.vox.com/recode/23405149/ai-art-dall-e-colonialism-artificial-intelligence), as well as others. There are also alarmist positions that AI art generators will take away jobs from working artists. While it is easy to to be sympathetic with such a concern I have not seen any actual data or evidence that points to such a trend in any measurable way. I don’t want to be sidetracked in this post, but perhaps in a future post I might explore the question of have drum machines impacted job opportunities for percussionists, which right now may be the closest comparison for which we have a decades long track record.
Regardless of such concerns, I believe that these technological tools are here with us to stay, and that any effort to put the AI genie back in the bottle will likely be unsuccessful. Even if large groups of nations ban or at least significantly curtail the legality of AI art generators, the internet has no boundaries, and any nation that lacks such regulation would likely become the base for any such continued activity. Therefore, for me personally, I think the best course of action is to engage with the technology, discover what it is good at, what it is not good at, and determine whether there may be useful applications for AI generated art. While it will likely take decades to fully digest the ability of AI art generators to transform (both good and bad) culture, I believe there’s no better time to start than the present. As one might imagine, my route into the topic of AI art is through the lens of what could this mean to working musicians.
We live in a visual society. Most individuals are more adapt at processing visual stimuli than they are at processing sound. This presents challenges for musicians.
Social media sites such as Instagram are nearly a necessary component of a working musician’s self promotion strategy. That being said, as a tool, it is really oriented to sharing visual images more than audio. When you do want to share audio in Instagram or TikTok, they typically require a visual component as part of a video file. There are certainly tools for adding images to audio for social media, and there are simple tools for adding titles to audio for use on social media. However, such tools can make one’s videos look very similar to thousands of others on a platform as such tools are often widely adopted.
Furthermore, most social media experts advise having one post per day, and often three or more in order to engage with an audience. This labor is also multiplied by the number of social media sites you use. Even if one eschews social media, musicians frequently have the need for visual content for album covers and concert posters. While there are musicians who enjoy creating visual content, time spent creating such content can often be at the expense of writing, recording, or performing.
There are many time effective solutions for content creation for musicians, including leaving a camera setup in your studio at all times, leaving a corner of your house or apartment ready to go (clean, well lit, uncluttered) for quick video posts, or putting a phone mount on your dashboard so you can post from your car with little effort. That being said, AI art generators can be another tool that musicians can use to help self manage their visual image and social media sites.
When thinking of visual content for social media feeds it is useful to think of an artist’s brand. Most often it is convenient for an artist’s brand to match their personality, so they don’t have to think very hard about whether a given image is consistent with their brand. Fortunately, my artist brand and personality pretty much both reduce to “eccentric weirdo.” AI art generators can be used to create images that are consistent with many, but perhaps not all, visual brands. Those who are interested in experimenting with using such tools to generate content for musicians may want to spend some time in a Facebook or Reddit group devoted to generated AI art to see what sorts of things AI art generators do well, and what they do not do well. Suffice it to say the abilities of AI generators increase whenever someone generates an image, so if the quality and abilities seem to be insufficient to your needs or tastes, you may want to wait a few weeks or a few months, and check back to see how the abilities have progressed.
In future posts I may offer up some of my personal experiences engaging with these tools, but for now, I leave this as an introduction to vein of exploration.