When artificial intelligence begins to penetrate the world of art in the broad sense, a sort of playground reserved for eons for the human species, it begins to get irritated. Clearly, a large portion of artists do not share the enthusiasm that accompanies the explosion of AI creativity. Among them were e.g. Mikolaj Grota Nick Cave, an award-winning Australian musician and singer who was deeply affected by ChatGPT’s attempts to emulate his songwriting style.
One of the singer’s fans sent him a private message with the lyrics of a song written by the famous chatbot OpenAI, to imitate his style. In my own pages The Red Hand Files newsletter, writes Nick Cavethat he obtains dozens of similar texts written by an artificial intelligence “inspired” by his artistic production. To put it mildly, however, he doesn’t share the widespread enthusiasm for the development of this technology.
Nick Cave to Lyricist AI: You’ve been to D and you’ve seen G
I think good songs are born out of human suffering. Algorithms and data don’t suffer, they haven’t been anywhere, they haven’t survived anything. ChatGPT can write a speech, essay, sermon, or obituary, but cannot create a real song. Maybe in time he could create a song that would be seemingly indistinguishable from the original, but would still be a cue, a kind of slapstick (imitation) Cave writes in his newsletter.
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It’s hard to disagree with that statement, looking at the online deluge of samples of ChatGPT’s work. In me, the very awareness that this text was not written by a human means that as the recipient I have no chance of establishing this specific connection with the artist. Often in song lyrics we find particles of our own experiences, which, in combination with the musical layer, can create a very strong mental and even physical resonance.
AI in art can help the artist, but should not replace him
Do not mistake yourself. I am not a total opponent of AI. I see a very broad scope for algorithms and neural networks in all categories of art, on one condition. It should be just one of many tools that help artists communicate their visions to the outside world. I would be afraid of the moment when I am not sure that there is a living being on the other side of the speaker or the screen.
I got hellfire in my eyes – a verse of this ChatGPT-generated content particularly appealed to Nick Cave. However, the artist does not intend to use it in his songs. This is simply a specific reaction from the Australian artist to the presence and activity of the OpenAI chatbot.
