Published
Wed, Nov 27, 2019, 18:25
- The PROTO producer waded into the experimental pop artists' Twitter exchange about how artificial intelligence will impact meaningful art.
Holly Herndon has weighed in on Grimes and Zola Jesus's exchange about artificial intelligence and the future of music.
Herndon shared a statement on Twitter Wednesday describing how "AI most likely won't replace musicians outright." Herndon also compared AI to earlier iterations of musical technology: "Drum machines made basic drumming accessible to musicians but didn't replace *great* drummers."
Citing her research and work with partner Mat Dryhurst, Herndon makes the case, "Ultimately, AI is useless without us," and looks to more "interdependent music" made in collaboration with AI. (Herndon's latest album, PROTO, was made with her AI "baby", Spawn. She also completed her PhD at Stanford's Center For Computer Research In Music And Acoustics this year.)
The discussion started when Zola Jesus responded to a Grimes podcast interview, in which she said, "I feel like we're in the end of art, human art," about AI in art.
Zola Jesus commented, "It's approaching the idea of music solely as commodity, which feels naive and ignorant." Grimes then replied with a thread of her own: "Technology has always changed the way we make/consume music, and it's not going to stop here... We can't prevent bad outcomes if we don't start envisioning good outcomes."
Zola Jesus further clarified her thoughts in a post on Patreon titled, "On AI And Silicon Fascist Privilege." (See the complete Twitter exchange on Pitchfork.)
Revisit Cherie Hu's feature, which includes an interview with Herndon, on the electronic artists collaborating with their artificial twins.
Read Herndon's full statement.