Interesting Quote from the Thomas Dolby Interview

[BONES]

I think he was trying to make a point about using AI but what he's actually done is make a reasonable case on the advantages of collaboration, of working with others -

One of the things I noticed being around so much great music in the corridors of Peabody every day is that when they're really in tune, not just intonation but really locked in. It's like looking at a flock of birds or a school of fish. You don't notice the individual decision making, it's just the cluster. Because there is this connection between the tips of their fingers and their brain and the open strings and their neighbor's open strings and the piano lid that's open and the sound from the back of the hall. When it's all working, it's just a magnificent thing that I couldn't program in a million years. Why? Because those machines we have, they just follow individual instructions like building blocks. They have no knowledge of the context, they don't listen to each other, they have no consciousness. I don't think that's a natural state of affairs.

I've bolded the interesting bit, which you can see applies to individuals working with computers or hardware sequencers, as well as to individuals off-loading some or all of their work to AI. What he's talking about earlier in the quote is the sort of synergy you get working with others, as well as that magical connection you sometimes get at a gig, where the band/artist feeds off the enthusiasm of the audience, creating a positive feedback loop.

However, I've found that working with AI can create the same kind of positive feedback, even though it is far more fleeting and pretty much impossible to maintain. The AI tends to be too flakey because it's not really experiencing it the way the human writing the prompts does. The connection becomes too easy to lose. But for the time it's there, when the AI nails the brief, it's a magical thing, every bit as satisfying as sitting down with a bandmate and coming up with a new song or that moment when you realise that some little idea you had has turned into a proper song.

On a side note, we've started adding our vocals to the re-created AI songs we've made and it's working much, much better than I had expected it would. We've still got a ways to go but it's nice to know we haven't wasted the last four months.

[ConceptualMachines]

Interesting topic. I’ve been working quite a bit with AI as a software engineer, and honestly it’s been a bit of a learning experience in itself, figuring out workflows, dealing with the occasional “slop”, and the sudden loss of context.

The best analogy I’ve found (no offence to anyone ) is that it’s like working with a genius who randomly forgets everything. It can struggle with very simple things, but other times it just one-shots ideas in a way that’s genuinely surprising.

I wouldn’t put myself in either the “boomer” or “doomer” camp (to borrow Amodei’s terms). To me, the interesting part is more about abstraction, reducing the friction between having an idea and actually executing it, and making iteration much faster.

In a music context, I can see that translating to things like speeding up repetitive workflows or exploring ideas more quickly. It’s not the same kind of synergy you get from playing with other people, but it does introduce a different kind of feedback loop when it works.

[BONES]

I see the difference as one of it's most appealing aspects. It can challenge you to go places you wouldn't have thought to go on your own and try different things. In my case it has challenged me, to a degree, to try things I am definitely not comfortable with. But the results are sounding really promising so it turns out I am at least a little more versatile than I thought I was.

[BONES]

Having seen this thread sink without a trace shows me how little people around here are interested in music for its own sake. You're all wrapped up in your fragile, worthless egos, desperately trying to prove to yourselves that you're not the worthless piece of shit you know, deep down, that you are.

Finding someone else to work with was the absolute best thing that ever happened to me and to the music I/we make. Even in the early days, when I was the dominant songwriter, having someone else to bounce ideas off was a huge boon to the process. Having input from another source didn't just make things better, it inspired me to push myself more than I ever had, so as not to let the partnership down. Since my bandmate became the main ideas man, it has spurred to work even harder to ensure that I am doing my fair share. The Dolby interview made me think about it in a slightly different way and see our partnership in a different light, such that I appreciate it more than ever and can see clearly just how central it has been to whatever modest "success" we've been able to achieve.

Working with AI has added yet another voice in that collaboration. If two heads are better than one, and in my experience the result is way more than the sum of its parts, then adding a third voice, even an AI one, creates an even more powerful working partnership. You just need to get your head out of your arse long enough to realise that if you really do love music, then you should be more than willing to explore any technology that might enhance what you're doing.

It all comes down to being open-minded. If you want to prove to yourself that AI is a waste of time, that's the easiest thing in the world because what you get out of it is a direct reflection of how much of yourself you are willing to put into it. It's not currently in a state where it can provide you a great song from a simple prompt, it still needs you to pour heart and soul into it, just like any other writing/production method does.

Being open-minded also means that you don't just go looking for the negatives, you embrace the positives and work from that. We all do it when we're working - you come up with a really nice hook or rhythm or melody or whatever and you can hear that there is a song in there somewhere, you just need to work on it some more to bring it out. It's the same working with AI - you have to see past the inconsistencies and find the good bits to work with.

[paradiddle]

Hey Bones, I've been following the discussions around AI in the forum but just not commenting. Definitely interested in how it can be used in creative ways.