Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom has thought a lot about the opportunities and existential risks of artificial intelligence. In one doomsday scenario, superintelligence manufactures paper clips to the point of destroying humanity. The arbitrary goal of making as many paper clips as possible leads to AI’s resistance against attempts to restrain it. Major cities crumble while superintelligence gobbles resources and Earth becomes a massive paperclip manufacturing plant.
Videos by American Songwriter
But then again, Siri will play Dookie by Green Day when asked.
Perhaps the alarmism sounds too close to science fiction for many to take seriously. But sci-fi is the most compelling with plausibility. A more immediate concern is the flattening of culture. You can find AI-generated clips of Thom Yorke singing “Wonderwall.” Kendrick Lamar’s music video for “The Heart Part 5” used AI technology to morph his face into other celebrities, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see how this might be abused politically or to ruin an adversary’s reputation.
Sheryl Crow is troubled by this, too, and she addressed her concerns in “Evolution,” the title track from her 12th studio album.
It’s Evolution, Baby (Yeah!)
In a video posted to her Instagram account, Crow shared a story about a young songwriter who paid $5 for a well-known artist to sing on a demo. She didn’t mention the songwriter or artist by name, but the disturbing reality is how easy and accessible the technology is.
Artists already live in a world where multi-billionaire tech companies race to the bottom, paying musicians and songwriters a fraction of a penny for their work. Companies like Apple and Spotify spend big money, using teams of attorneys, fighting against royalty increases. What happens when an artist loses autonomy over her own voice?
Turned on the radio, and there it was
A song that sounded like something I wrote
The voice and melody were hauntingly
So familiar that I thought it was a joke
If you’ve read AI-generated fiction, and you’ve also read Rachel Kushner or Don DeLillo, then you are well aware of just how awful it is. Without the human connection, the algorithm processes feelings, and it sounds as lifeless as Amazon’s Alexa.
Is it beyond intelligence?
As if the soul need not exist
Crow addresses much more than superintelligence’s influence on music. There are profound ethical implications for advancing AI. If a self-driving car must decide which pedestrian to run over, someone is responsible for that code if both can’t be avoided. Though we don’t always use it, sweet reason is humans’ best tool.
Evolution ever-changing
Lost in space and time
Maybe there’s a grand solution
Somewhere we will find
Deep in the heart of humankind
It’s not like there isn’t a track record of unforeseen consequences of technological advancements. College students pinged each other using Facebook before it became a tool tearing apart democracy. Crow isn’t a Luddite; she’s a thinking and feeling human being. And that’s the point.
Rage Against The (Literal) Machine
Rage Against the Machine guitarist and occasional E Street bandmate Tom Morello burns a slashing solo on Crow’s bomb track. Morello’s band is famous for writing revolutionary missives against oppression. If you are looking for guitar-armed resistance to incursions on the human spirit, the man with a SOUL POWER Fender Stratocaster is your best option.
Fake Everything
Need more evidence of the problem with removing humans from art? In 2022, Capitol Records (home to The Beatles!) signed an AI rapper named FN Meka. They later “dropped” the virtual rapper and apologized to the Black community for the project’s racial stereotypes. The record label that released OK Computer and Revolver had signed an artificially generated rapper with 10 million TikTok followers—quality and humans be damned.
AI isn’t going away, and it will inevitably become smarter than humans in the same way the telescope has expanded the limited vision of the human eye. But the outcome of AI’s effect on art and culture won’t happen in a vacuum, and Crow wisely cautions against a lack of humility.
Yes, we are brilliant, we are kind
But sometimes, we miss the glaring signs
We Make Nothing
The paper clip was a valuable invention for holding papers together. Outsourcing the folded metal loops to a machine is efficient and probably something humans don’t need to spend time doing anyway.
Music holds much more than paper. It’s kind of like the world’s most significant paper clip, leaping beyond language and borders to hold communities together. Songs are deeper than just the assemblage of notes and sounds. They are stories of the human condition, and people are necessary because, without the experience, there isn’t a story to tell.
The most poignant line in Crow’s song is this: No matter how well you can outdo me / There is one thing you will never do, and it’s feel.
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Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for The Environmental Media Association
