What Happens When An AI Wins The Grammy? – RHETOTICS
We’ll all keep toying and experimenting with AI until the nominees for the Grammys are released one year, and we see an AI somewhere on that list. As the hobbyist philosopher that I am, it is my responsibility to ask the big questions before society bumbles around and finds itself standing in front of a molehill, mistaking it for a mountain.
So I’ll ask now, what happens when an AI wins the Grammy?
Yes, you want to scoff at the thought right now. It seems laughable. AI, winning the Grammy? But, think about it. AI is involved in songwriting, composition, arrangement, instrumentation, backing vocals, autotuning, and lead vocals. There is even an AI band right now. All of these, when we have not yet achieved true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). How close are we to that, by the way?
There are two folds to this AI and Grammy issue. Firstly, what if there is a human alias for an AI, they go on to win the Grammy, and then reveal that all the applause and adulation should actually be directed at the AI, as they are only a representative. What will be the reaction of the audience, the Recording Academy, the industry as a whole, and society at large?
Secondly, what does an AI band like The Velvet Sundown have to do to get themselves (itself?) a nomination? If an AI band meets all the criteria a human band meets, shouldn’t they get the Grammys’ gramophone?
Before you argue that an AI band should not even be considered for nomination, have you heard them (it)? Do you know what the next generation of AI music tools is capable of doing? Before you overthink this, would you consider an AI – Human collaboration? Or is that not a product of human creativity?
On second thought, shouldn’t we just create an AI Grammys? Won’t that save everyone the stress? However we look at it, there will be the purists, those who believe algorithms should be kept out of the music awards. Then there will be the revolutionaries, the all-welcoming, the “open-minded” ones. They would argue that as long as it is music, it is an all-comers affair. Who should we listen to? Who will you side with? And most importantly, how will the moneybags, policymakers, and listeners align?
I envisage that a time is just around the corner when using AI in music production will be no different from using a loop station, auto tune, or even a guitar. A generation is coming that will toy with musical AI tools before sticking a music recorder in their lips or a violin between their chin and shoulder. For that generation, how do you convince them that AI is not a part of music? What will be their own position in this discussion?
It is starting to seem like I am overthinking this issue, so I’ll have to stop typing now. A last question before I go: when an AI eventually wins a Grammy award, is that the beginning of the end or the end of a beginning?
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