AI and Art

It has been a half year since I wrote the last post. Focusing on learning Thai is the primary reason, but now I reckon there is still value to continue writing in English because I do find my English capability fading out while my Thai comes to occupy my whole brain.

Recently my friend at Thoughtworks said she was appointed by our Marketing team to come up with an AI themed event. We both play instruments in our office band, and I know she is recently experimenting with some AI music composition tools, so I said why not just make an AI concert. It’s definitely going to go viral. She was surprised by this idea, but immediately she raised a concern about the controversy of using AI in creative works.

Then I said programming is actually a creative work too. How come using AI to program is ok, but using AI to paint or writing songs is not? My friend humorously said we copy and paste too much, but painting and music are still generally unique because of their creative design.

I don’t disagree. Recently I am listening to Bodyslam’s ทางของฉัน ฝันของเธอ. I like the arrangement of its drum beats. It keeps simple but the detail is sophisticated. If I think about it, the music composition is definitely well thought. It starts with a lower emotion by questioning oneself, and it goes to the determination to ensure the dream of their loved one by always being their side no matter what. At the very end of the song, the drum continues and fades out. It matches to the spirit to keep going of the whole song. For artwork with thoughtful designs like this, I don’t believe this is something that AI can do.

The Thoughtworks friend also made a song for me. I have to say the final result was amazing. It was very complete and also fun. If I were not told, I would just think it’s a human made song. I feel some of the words in lyrics are also pretty artistic. However, I am not sure if this is a phycological effect because I have already known it’s produced by AI, I do feel in terms of the spirit it feels less standing out to me.

I feel the AI music that I have seen for now can definitely go compete with lots of internet viral music (such as most hits on TikTok), but it still doesn’t compare with the songs that I like because of their thoughtful design. This is not saying AI cannot produce similar designs with those real masterpieces. In fact, I think it’s just a matter of time for AI to mimic whatever we do. However, I wonder would that makes AI music valuable even if it makes all the interesting designs like human. I feel an artwork is only appealing because of the story, emotion, or the viewpoint that the producer desires to express. If the whole artwork is made by AI automatically, even if it says something and its art paradigm is flawless, would it be art? On the other hand, if someone doesn’t have enough techniques, but they do have enough altitudes, with the help of AI they manage to produce something, would that be considered as art?