Never go FULL hippie. I hope instead that, as with so many previous technologies, we explore the boundaries of what is possible, democratize the creative process and open it up to a much more diverse audience, and STILL have the wisdom and depth (spiritual or otherwise) to differentiate between art across the full spectrum of "human-only" to "machine-only", including the vast majority of output which will probably sit somewhere in the middle. Of all the reasons I see articulated for hating Rogan, this at least feels like it's based on some sort of principle... but as with @Rozovian's post, it seems like the principle hovers somewhere in the vicinity of Luddism. CAN it be avoided? The ships are already sailing; furthermore, consider that whatever might be done to "avoid" what you're concerned about could end up being worse than the symptoms... Think of how many might write an entire symphony because the task is no longer overbearing; also think of all the kids who stopped learning math when calculators became cheap, etc. Not every technological development is an either-or proposition that kills human utility entirely, and usually more than a few new doors are opened. Deep Blue didn't kill chess, and the popularity of The Queen's Gambit actually prompted a spike of sorts, etc., etc. Well, make up your mind - potentially, or not? It's hard to ring the alarm bells and tell folk there MIGHT be an issue... Here's how I see it... there are many types of music. There is "free expression" music written just for the sheer fun of it, there are soundtracks written for myriad forms of entertainment/education/media, there's commercial music written in many different genres, folk music performed for rituals, etc. In the short term, from a market angle, it seems like AI is going to have the most impact on musicians doing work-for-hire stuff for smaller productions, stock music, and more "utilitarian" composition where the artist name isn't front-and-center and there tends to be more of a churn/grind dynamic. In other arenas, I think it's more likely that humans will remain relevant & involved for a good long while, but they'll be leveraging SOME of the AI tooling as part of their process. I am relatively confident kids will continue learning instruments; Esther just performed a trombone solo for her 5th grade band concert, and she killed it. Very proud. The utility of learning an instrument and performing as part of a group extends far beyond whatever market value the resultant audio recording might have - which is very little, to anyone other than the parents :) Some things don't change. Yeah I believe thinking is going to get you further than feeling, on this one. If you want to feel bad (and who doesn't?!) for a more defined, concrete reason, I think it would be something like this: Eventually AI will come for almost any profession and task you can name. On a long enough timeline, hardly any human talent or utility escapes. But on that same timeline, due to that widespread market disruption, hopefully we end up advancing technology to the point where we are all far better off, where new concerns present themselves, and where we begin the long process of transforming our systems into something Roddenberry-esque. What sucks is that art & music & writing seem like they might get hit first, a little earlier than other disciplines, and thus not benefit from the market protections I believe we will eventually see arise. So it's a timing thing, mostly. But there is plenty of tragedy to be had in matters of timing, of course. It's going to be too blurry for that; you're criticizing poor old Joe for being "cheap and binary" but I think you & many others keep on conceptualizing AI as a binary all-or-nothing proposition when I think it's far more likely that we'll be looking at a MIX of human/machine input & "collaboration" into the future. That's why I chimed in originally - a single prompt feels quite wrong, yes, but if you start adding more & more prompts, refinements, or even allow for direct input of audio (I think one of the services just added this actually), you move away from the "a machine made this" and towards more human input, along a spectrum. Because literally no technology in the history of technology has waited for "the whole world" to "come together and do public philosophy"? Nuclear might come closest... The line of thinking reminds me of this: https://squareallworthy.tumblr.com/post/163790039847/everyone-will-not-just  

There's one word that keeps shooting through my mind while listening to this: more. I kept hoping this would expand on the original source more while it progressed through the track.  More melodic embellishment, more original material; anything to add your own personal spin on it. One tiny way you did to it was adding the syncopation to that starts at 1:27. That was a good way to really make it feel different compared to the source, because there is no syncopation in the original. 2:27 was another good example of adding to it with the repeated notes in the melody. I could easily see 1:50 as a moment where you inject more original material and depart instead of repeating again. Overall, the vibe is nice. The drums and bass work together well and don't step on each other's toes. As far as the balance and mix, instruments are pretty close to where they should be, aside from the whistle which could come up by 1-3db. In summary, more variation and less repetition. This was very close though! NO  

just to go full hippie: i dearly hope we grow enough as a species to find these fangled new things boring soon enough and deepen our spiritual bond in a sense that we know doing it ourselves is infinitely superior. as far as personal development. i honestly despise good ol' JRE for jumping on the "hey, can't be avoided" bandwagon (because musk is his buddy/influencer/handler?) just think how many kids will never pick up a pencil because stabul diffushun can do it betta. (not that it necessarily can but it sure will seem like it to any 10 yr old trying for realism.) i think we all need to wake up a bit to accurately portray to non-artists why this whole AI thing is so bad for the arts. or at least, potentially bad.   like, i include myself. i don't wanna do a moralistic sermon. i just *feel* how bad this development is but i wanna do some deep thinking to be able to better express why i feel so very bad about this. "hey, can't be avoided someone's gonna build it anyway" is just so cheap and binary. yes they will. but everyone's philosophical stance and how they express it WILL determine how dominant these tools will become in everyday human expression. and how deeply the users will reflect on the usage. ideally, A.I. should be developed, if at all, in a peaceful period where the whole world can come together and do public philosophy over pandora's box. why, do you think, is the diametrical opposite the case?   HM.  

I keep trying to write something here, but the words are not able to say what I am feeling. This song hit hard and its awesome.

so i've been back to northern italy for 3 weeks, and these two bits are about as much as i've been able to cook up here regarding remixes. (feeling pretty lethargic here lol) darkworld1.mp3   smwjank1.mp3   it's not so much, but i did finally incorporate my hardware synths into something. i've had these for years and never used em much. a behringer deep mind 6, microfreak and behringer WASP. all three in use in the zelda bit, only the DM6 in the SMW credits theme. hey i know it's not much. but maybe someone digs the kondage. tomorrow i'll be off to berlin, and chill there a few months. my 2nd netbook is waiting there, and i hope to get some more musicking done (more than here anyway) so i'll have like an axis of evil of studios. southern italy/northern italy/berlin. sounds about right. the CPU power is in the south, the hardware stuff is in the center, and...i'll see what the berlin studio is gonna be. probably only 15 year old plugins and shabby soundfontz!! stay tuned lol