In a conversation with radio DJ Zach Sang, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins shared his opinion on AI. His comment followed a statement made by Sting warning about a battle between humankind and artificial intelligence.
“AI will change music forever. Because once young artists figure out that they can use AI to game the system and write them a better song, they’re not going to spend 10,000 hours in a basement like I did”.
“Ultimately, art is about discernment. Somebody was telling me the other day how a famous rap artist would work, they would bring in all these different people and they would pick the beat they were most attracted to”.
“Now, let’s change it to AI. ‘Hey, AI. Give me 50 beats from the 50 best rap songs of all time. Mmm, I like number 37.’ That inspires me. Are they ripping it off? Not really. Because I did the same thing. I just did it analogue. I listened to 10,000 songs – so what’s the difference? So it will really be about those who can discern, even if it’s AI presenting them with choices.”
In the end, Corgan said the competition between artists and those “who have good discernment” will be much harder for the former. “You think there’s a lot of bad music coming out now, just wait”.
