From Beats to Bots: Timbaland Says "AI Has More Soul"
Timbaland has finally told us how he really feels, and we all are now concerned with his mental health.
What’s up SOVL Collective,
When I say AI does it better, I’m not referencing some hometown deference shown to fellow Virginia Notable Allen Iverson.
NO, that would make more sense.
The legendary, Grammy Award-winning producer Timbaland has decided that AI-generated music is more soulful than human-generated music.
In case you’ve been under a rock, Timbaland released his new pet project this past week. His personal AI artist.
Meet “Tata”
Look, I’m not gonna lie,
I think AI is an incredibly powerful enhancement tool for humans.
In the same way, the computer augmented the thinking process by offloading complex mathematical tasks, AI can do a similar thing by offloading many complex processing tasks that we need.
For example, using AI to help fill in the gaps in a song and generate vocals based on lyrical input and context is pretty useful.
These are the same things that a producer would say to a group of musicians in the studio. It’s virtually like having a VST that can generate more than just instrument sounds.
This is essentially what I LOVE using AI for,and Timbaland happens to endorse a relatively impressive platform that enables users to do just that.
But before I go into detail about Suno.ai, we need to dive into the implications that AI-generated artists are more soulful or even more desirable than human-generated musical art.
Remember this guy?
no?
What about now?
This is FN Meka, An AI-generated artist using the vocals of Kyle the Hooligan.
Even though this was an AI project, it was still primarily voiced by humans, African American humans at that.
Though the picture above elicited a bit of outrage over the insensitivity to people suffering from police brutality, the AI rapper was dropped by Capitol Records over the criticisms of the rapper’s use of the N word.
The broader conversation begs the question of what is appropriate usage of race and identity when considering AI-generated art.
And how is what Timbaland is doing different from what Capital Records did with FN Meka?
How can Timbaland’s artist embrace her ‘ethnic’ identity without appropriating and capitalizing on the culture and experiences of another group?
SOUL: “the non-physical, immaterial aspect of a living being, often considered the animating principle or essence of life”
And how the %#&# can this have ‘soul’ when it lacks the fundamental animating principal of what 'it’ is supposed to represent?
honestly Timbaland is tripping,
Im starting to think that Timbaland has been collecting ideas from artist to recycle and reformulate into his signature sound.
Seems like he’s been doing similar things for years..
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See the thing is, Copywright law in certain areas is completely different than copywright law here in the states..
And similar to copyright law surrounding AI productions…
Its FAIR GAME…
So, essentially instead of creating a vertically integrated business by generating music, its MORE profitable to have other people generate it and not pay them..
and when you run out of humans to do it with,
just train an AI on some unknown and never to be revealed sources and violla..
Slavery without the human impact.
Strong words,
But if he were white, what would his artists say?
honestly I wouldnt give a shit if this was his first rodeo, but after years years of lawsuits and the current issue with not paying the beatclub employees,
so what do you call capitalizing off of the hard work of certain ethnic groups (funny how his AI is Asian as well) without properly crediting or compensating them?
its definitely not enslavement, but i’m sure there are a few words that fit the bill..
But finding that word is besides the point,
Can we expect transparency from Timbaland on how he trained his model?