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Newsletter cribnotes | Newsletter cribnotes | ||
===Robot Nirvana=== | |||
Why the emergence of [[artificial intelligence]] that can write its own Nirvana tunes tells us something opposite to what we think it does. | |||
Pink Floyd’s 1992 album ''The Division Bell'' wittily dubbed “ wish you were an animal on the dark side of the wall”. Karen mind that was a facsimile created by most of the original members of pink Floyd. Now imagine a pink Floyd album created by a Pink Floyd tribute act, containing none of the original members but instead gifted fans who are passionate about Pink Floyd and understand it's musical output. | |||
The importance of authenticity. Why is it not the same when it isn't David gilmour playing that guitar solo? | The importance of authenticity. Why is it not the same when it isn't David gilmour playing that guitar solo? | ||
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Leaving aside all the overpowering psychological reasons not to value an AI version of Pink Floyd, there is the bluntly practical one. They can only ever be a flawless moment it can recombine existing elements into a new you form. But it cannot create genuinely new you output because it is not the artist. Whatever the machine comes up with it will not be what nirvana's ''next'' album was going to be. Of course, we cannot know that, but consider an AI algorithm directed at The Beatles first four albums. Is there any chance it could have devised music resembling that on revolver or rubber soul let alone tough White album or sergeant pepper's? An AI analysing Pablo honey and The bends will not produce amnesiac or kid A. | Leaving aside all the overpowering psychological reasons not to value an AI version of Pink Floyd, there is the bluntly practical one. They can only ever be a flawless moment it can recombine existing elements into a new you form. But it cannot create genuinely new you output because it is not the artist. Whatever the machine comes up with it will not be what nirvana's ''next'' album was going to be. Of course, we cannot know that, but consider an AI algorithm directed at The Beatles first four albums. Is there any chance it could have devised music resembling that on revolver or rubber soul let alone tough White album or sergeant pepper's? An AI analysing Pablo honey and The bends will not produce amnesiac or kid A. | ||
===Allegory, fairy stories and the hubris of taking things literally=== | |||
We have been been warning ourselves since the dawn of civilization about the folly of using magic to take shortcuts. If we take {{author|Arthur C. Clarke}} at his word that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic then are we forgetting our oldest lessons? | |||