World reacts to fully AI-generated singer-songwriter Anna Indiana

27 November, 2023

NME News

A fully AI-generated singer-songwriter, Anna Indiana, released her first song last week to widespread derision online.

In a post to X/Twitter, Indiana said that every aspect of her debut single, ‘Betrayed By This Town’ “from the key, tempo, chord progression, melody notes, rhythm, lyrics, and my image and singing, is auto-generated using AI.”

However, not everyone seemed keen on both the song and the notion of an AI-generated musician. “No one on Earth wants this technology. Use AI to make drudgery easier, not to ruin activities we enjoy,” one X/Twitter user wrote in the comments.

Another pointed out that the song wasn’t any more complex than the majority of popular music, despite being created by advanced technology. “Yet another I – V – vi – IV chord progression that’s used in every other pop song from 1996 to today. They needed advanced computers to come up with this dreck?” they wrote.

“The song sucked and the voice is annoying. Not to mention the freakish, out of proportion facial structure,” another commenter added.

Others picked up on the song being a sign of how far AI has progressed in recent times. “this is awful, but it’s still pretty damn good considering where we started. It’s like watered down dime store taylor swift,” suggested one X/Twitter user.

The use of AI in the creation of art has remained a hot-button topic throughout 2023. Artists that have spoken out against AI include Hozier (who has considered striking in protest), Noel Gallagher (who called the creators of a fake Oasis album “fucking idiots”) and Nick Cave (who described it as “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”).

Concerns have also been raised around issues relating to copyright and payment for creatives. UK Music Interim Chief Executive Tom Kiehl urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to respond to the music industry’s concerns around artificial intelligence by introducing some form of legal protection around the developing technology.

Kiehl and UK Music have suggested that AI could be a form of “music laundering,” opening up a potential means for creatives to not receive compensation for their work.

Back in September, the CMM published five fundamental rules that they want companies to embrace when it comes to developing music AI technologies.

The outlined five key objectives to ensure that all training, licensing and commercialisation of music-making generative AI models in the music sector can be developed in a way that is both helpful to creators and respective of their rights.

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