Today – or indeed this evening – I feel sufficiently motivated to offer my views – albeit briefly – on the subject of AI and its impact on the creative sector and music in particular. Here we are all worrying about how AI is going to change the ‘game’ and how we need to adapt to an ever changing world that we are not in control of. The big fear is that AI is going to render everyone (well not quite everyone but certainly creatives) ‘surplus to requirements’ – stripped of their economic value and therefore not able to trade it for financial/material gains.
Well first, let me say something about the future. Allow me to say that the future should be – and is – in the hands of people (mankind) and not in the hands of a few who are motivated by the pursuit of power, control and selfish gains. The future is not a foregone conclusion and all it takes is for mankind to resist any sense of a dystopian future by getting together and saying, ‘No!’. That is the biggest force on this planet but it takes mobilisation. The individual is helpless. Divide and rule right?
But here’s another thing: AI will never replace the creative process and the creative spirit: because it is about the expression of my interior (and yours) my heart, mind and soul and nothing is going to make me think otherwise. So take your AI and shove it – because I am still going to do this…whether the world finds a use for it or not; just as it has been since early mankind: the drive to express oneself and to take pleasure in being creative. So what if the world cannot find a ‘use’ for it – I don’t care and neither should you. Creative work should not be at mercy and whim of anything – follow your muse and to hell with anything else. And if other souls on this lonely planet respond to that expression then great. Everything else is secondary; so on that account there is nothing to worry about. Carry on as before!
One final remark:; the way that big tech companies have got us creatives thinking that all we are creating now comes under the heading of, ‘content’. I mean really? Shove your content!
