I really loved this, both of you. Tea and I crossed paths in the child-infested swimming pools of Sydney many years ago! I’m a songwriter and public educator, so I filtered a lot of this conversation through the lens of the arts, and ‘human’ made creative work. I talk a lot to students about the idea that when output is indistinguishable (now-ish), the process becomes the product. But the challenge, as Tea put it, will certainly be the flesh puppets (or was it ‘meat avatars’? I can’t remember!) - AI (and companies using AI) KNOW the premium that human authenticity commands, and will use AI to imitate that authenticity as well. That’s tricky. My 2 cents (totally unsolicited, thank you for your indulgence…), in the realm of “do people care about the origination of the outputs?” is both yes and no. I think that what we will see is a clear wiping out of artists who make art that is functional, not emotional. On the ‘functional’ end of the spectrum is music that is made to be played in the background, in offices, to create mood but not emotion. I don’t believe that people care about the origination of that music (sufficiently to make a ruckus), and so gen AI will create that (including instrumental music cues in most visual media). On the other end is ‘emotion’ driven music, or music that is featured in emotion-salient environments - personal, engaged listening in the home or pods, at events, music for dance (I predict this is still such a primal experience that people will continue to care that the music is human-made), and music that is ‘featured’ placement in film/tv/visual media. People will continue to care, because the music in those environments is is being ‘used’, in a sense, to feel emotion and to help us figure out and understand the human experience. The very reason we connect to it is because it’s human, and the reason it connects to us. (Of course, we may be continually tricked into connecting, but people will continue to care, and lose connection and a sense of value once they know it is not human-made).
I really loved this, both of you. Tea and I crossed paths in the child-infested swimming pools of Sydney many years ago! I’m a songwriter and public educator, so I filtered a lot of this conversation through the lens of the arts, and ‘human’ made creative work. I talk a lot to students about the idea that when output is indistinguishable (now-ish), the process becomes the product. But the challenge, as Tea put it, will certainly be the flesh puppets (or was it ‘meat avatars’? I can’t remember!) - AI (and companies using AI) KNOW the premium that human authenticity commands, and will use AI to imitate that authenticity as well. That’s tricky. My 2 cents (totally unsolicited, thank you for your indulgence…), in the realm of “do people care about the origination of the outputs?” is both yes and no. I think that what we will see is a clear wiping out of artists who make art that is functional, not emotional. On the ‘functional’ end of the spectrum is music that is made to be played in the background, in offices, to create mood but not emotion. I don’t believe that people care about the origination of that music (sufficiently to make a ruckus), and so gen AI will create that (including instrumental music cues in most visual media). On the other end is ‘emotion’ driven music, or music that is featured in emotion-salient environments - personal, engaged listening in the home or pods, at events, music for dance (I predict this is still such a primal experience that people will continue to care that the music is human-made), and music that is ‘featured’ placement in film/tv/visual media. People will continue to care, because the music in those environments is is being ‘used’, in a sense, to feel emotion and to help us figure out and understand the human experience. The very reason we connect to it is because it’s human, and the reason it connects to us. (Of course, we may be continually tricked into connecting, but people will continue to care, and lose connection and a sense of value once they know it is not human-made).
Thanks for having this convo, and posting it :)
Thanks for the really thoughtful comment Keppie, and also for listening to our conversation.