A survey published last week suggested 97% of respondents could not spot an AI-generated song. But there are some telltale signs - if you know where to look.
Here’s a quick guide …
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No live performances or social media presence
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‘A mashup of rock hits in a blender’
A song with a formulaic feel - sweet but without much substance or emotional weight - can be a sign of AI, says the musician and technology speaker, as well as vocals that feel breathless.
- ‘AI hasn’t felt heartbreak yet’
“AI hasn’t felt heartbreak yet… It knows patterns,” he explains. “What makes music human is not just sound but the stories behind it.”
- Steps toward transparency
In January, the streaming platform Deezer launched an AI detection tool, followed this summer by a system which tags AI-generated music.
I like to take real life sounds and put layers of effects on them to make them indistinguishable from the original. My drum is me playing my cat’s butt (meow, slap). I love to take quick sounds and slow them down ~100k% and get really weird atmospheric drones, etc.
When it comes to involving AI, which I haven’t done yet, I’d love to use it to quickly iterate over ideas. I spend a lot of time chasing an idea and having it fall apart. I like the process, sure, but I’d prefer to have more wins.
Hey, man, I feel that.
But yeah I heard a friend of mine also slows down slices and makes new sounds out of them. I have not been able to get to a studio in years, unfortunately, but I hear it can be done!
And that’s how I “use” Suno, too. Song ideas. I would never be able to live with myself if I just published an AI song, but I think using it to explore ideas is fair game. But then, you can download the stems in WAV, so you can basically use that instead of buying pre-made tracks from musicians on like Apple Store or whatever.
Which only comes back to the problem that it will likely hurt musicians and make life harder for everyone. I don’t know man, I’m just as nonplussed about the whole fucking thing as anyone.
I think tools are tools. But I think “AI” has way too much hype around it. The best way I have ever used AI for creative purposes is to say “do this and let me see it” and then “ok, make it blue” and then… up until the point where I like the concept of a thing, and then I go make it myself. But that process is foreign to most people and that process triggers them and gives them this kind of overwhelming anxiety that makes them have to lash out in anger. I just don’t understand that mentality. I think it is a mental illness from too much screen time