Is AI really all-consuming?

The rise of Artificial Intelligence may be spreading gloom over the music world but, reasons Tom Service, there is still hope for us humans yet!

- 

It is the best of times! It is the worst of times! Charles Dickens didn't do headlines, but if he did, the current debates about AI (Artificial Intelligence) in our lives and culture would be made for him. It’s algorithmically impossible to find a view in the media that isn’t either ‘AI is gonna save us all!’ or, conversely, ‘AI is our event horizon as a species - you have been warned!’.

In music, the Al news seems very gloomy, as bot-made playlist-manufacture takes over the digital charts and musicians' catalogues are harvested and data-mined, all so that we can give whichever AI service you favour a prompt such as: ‘make me a medium-paced Baroque sarabande to accompany my trip to the supermarket’. If you're a human recording artist or composer trying to make your way and compete with the technology, you're off to a losing start before you've begun.