Young Guru recently voiced concern for the state of A.I. technology in relation to music after a content creator generated a fake Kendrick Lamar track using voice replication technology. Moreover, the legendary engineer wasn't completely against its existence, but rather its potential for malevolent use. Of course, that's something Guru's warned about in other areas, too. Overall, it's a pretty lengthy and heady takedown of the new artistic trend of relying on A.I.-generated art. "This has dominated my Howard group chat for a couple days," he began. "Ok I’m at the point where I can voice my concerns with our current state of AI.
"I have followed as many versions of what AI could do for some years now," he continued. "I remember being at MIT and students showing me a project where they were actively feeding a computer 'All' the jazz records that ever existed. So that AI could analyze and create music in any style of any musician. I didn’t think we would get here this fast with the voice. Of course my mind goes to the ethical and legal aspects of what can be done with programs like Tacotron 2. You add that to the power of ChatGPT and you realize we are in a very groundbreaking but dangerous moment.
Young Guru Voices Concern Over A.I. Technology In Music
"It’s not the tech, it’s the evil that men do with the tech," the Roc Nation leader expressed. "There are legal aspects because at this present moment you can’t copyright a voice. (Midler v. Ford Motor Co.) You can copyright a song, or a speech but not the voice itself!!! You can literally create a song or an album in the voice of your favorite musician. And this is just music. The ability to create a Manchurian Candidate scares me. Think about that in every industry. There are still states that don’t even have a law against revenge porn. I’m sorry to go there but imagine the repercussion on our kids when 5 years from now some high school kid gets mad at his ex girlfriend and creates a whole “deep fake” that sounds and looks real.
"Imagine the political landscape where we can’t believe anything we hear because someone will claim they didn’t say it," he concluded. “'It’s a Deep Fake', will be the same as saying 'I got hacked'. I don’t even want to continue giving examples for fear that someone will go out and do it. The law has to change to protect everyone not just Public Figures. And the super scary part is that we are just getting started, we feed the beast constantly everyday with more and more content to be studied. Maybe the Luddites had a point. The book by Gavin Mueller 'Breaking Things At Work' starts to take on a way more urgent role!!" Regardless of your take on A.I. in music, let us know what you think in the comments down below. Also, stay tuned to HNHH for the latest news, tales, and reflections from the one and only Young Guru.