Article: How Will A.I. Change Art? - Parts 1-3

Article: How Will A.I. Change Art? - Parts 1-3

Note: This series was originally published as The Space Age Oracle on X in 2023.

Part 1: How Will A.I. Change Art?

The legal battles raging between Hollywood and upper-level writers and artists are a different battle than what you and I are probably concerned with. Whether or not they get compensation isn't going to benefit most of the artistic community selling stuff on Etsy or eBay, indie music, etc.

For example, do you want a new front room? Don't hire a designer; have the A.I. program give you hundreds of ideas within the budget and where to get the items (or even order for you). Are you a young filmmaker who needs a soundtrack? Just feed the program your script (written by A.I.) and have it create the perfect music. Now the Talking Heads of Tech will thump their chests and proclaim that the software will have proper safeguards, and only regulated copies will be allowed, abuse will be minimal, and so on. This is the type of spin we all heard when people had concerns about online banking.

The legal issues will be straightened out, mainstream companies will follow the law, and copyright issues will be settled, at least to the satisfaction of businesses and the upper tier of artists. Even upper-tier artists who get compensated will find that their audiences might shrink once people can have A.I. give them similar art.

Most of the art we buy is street level. Most of us can't afford Picassos or have Taylor Swift sing at a wedding. You have a budget, and there's generally an artist that can do the job. Aspiring artists need these levels. That's where all of them get their start on the way to hopefully becoming a star.

So far, much of the press has been from analyst opinions, artists, and A.I. companies. The opinion that counts is those of future customers. What do they think about A.I., and what would they do with it? The opinion leaders have put out a lot of speculation and scare stories about killer bots. Still, some smarter ones say the uncomfortable truth: that the customers will replace human beings. Not maybe, but as soon as the A.I. can do it.

As far as the good? 

Despite complaints about spell and grammar checks, writers have benefitted from it at the expense of editing companies. Almost all indie book covers are designed by artists using software that automates design and execution at the expense of artists who work on canvas and paper. Indies use a variety of software to create and distribute art and market it at the expense of many designers, copywriters, sound engineers, producers, and so on.

Or...would these Indies even exist if they had to pay that considerable support structure?

We know the harm A.I. can do to the art community. The question is, will it create the same opportunity it did for Indies in the last few years? In other words, can it lead to an explosion of new artists like Indie writers after Amazon KDP and software made it possible to become a published writer without the expensive approval and support structure?

Is what we think is art changing, and is A.I. part of that?

I've said in past blog entries that technology drives much of the change in art. I'm hardly the first and won't be the last to say it. Rock and roll would have been different without electric guitars, as with the 80s without electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Those instruments allowed artists to create new sounds, primarily for young, upcoming artists.

In other words, is the fight over A.I. actually a struggle by old-school artists and sensibilities about change? Is A.I. a new technology that will be embraced by a young generation already going full blast on social media, and will it be their electric guitar or home computer?

Part 2: How Will A.I. Change Art?

Note: I'm sure you'll notice this series isn't a structured article delivered in parts. I'm exploring the subject like many others are.

The problem with A.I. "scraping" isn't that the output is derivative. Humans scrape all the time. The entire education process is based on studying data, sound, and images already created.

The problem of counterfeit books, like those that purported to be written by authors such as Jane Freidman, which were recently taken down off Amazon, is the age-old problem of bootlegging rearing its head again.The Rock Music Industry is a good example. The first known rock bootleg is said to have been "The Great White Wonder," a collection of demos by Bob Dylan and the Band, which was released later as "The Basement Tapes." There's a lot of history to that bootleg, and it's worth researching on the Internet, but I'll stick to the narrower point of it being the quasi-official start of that illegal Industry.

The early vinyl bootlegs tended to be a limited release, as even with some pressing equipment becoming more accessible, most had to be slipped through a legitimate pressing plant under a fake title. Bootlegging was always a corruption issue, also. Tape and, later on, C.D.s made the process of stealing music easier, as anybody could buy the equipment, and in the present, digital recording has automated the process so a bootleg can be easily distributed worldwide, virtually without cost.

In the case of A.I.-generated art, it's not as simple as being a mean old computer app that steals stuff. It's a tool, and any unethical use is due to humans with the same mentality as bootleggers.The music bootleg was a product that enabled the seller to skip the stages (and expense) of creation, performance, and manufacture.

Almost every artist starts off as a beginner, which generally means studying and being influenced by previous works. Thanks to the sources like the  Internet and mass media (and not because of it), that process produces results that can be seen as original, derivative, or copies and identified as such.

An example would be music. A group like Fleetwood Mac started as a Blues group, developed a style of its own, then went through stages to become major rock and pop stars. 

A.I. not only has the potential to steal a lot of the established chain of talent to produce art but adds the troubling dimension of assimilating lesser-known work. As said in previous entries, the latter can derail the careers of new artists who find their efforts incorporated into an A.I. work.

One could say that A.I. could steal much of an artistic genre's future and be a boon to bootleggers. The potential for exploitation is immense as no matter what anyone says, A.I. is a product of human labor and talent (and greed).

As a matter of disclosure, some of you might wonder why I've moved my blog to X. I moved it due to the controversy over Elon Musk and Reddit limiting access to the API by A.I. companies.

Many here may not like Musk, but the body of my work is at least a little safer from scraping on a site that limits access, and while not perfect, the process of restricting access via restrictions and cost is on the right side of the debate on A.I. scraping.

The issue is complex, and there will be a lot of discussion, so my opinions here are only one voice in the debate.

I think the current generation of new artists will use A.I. more and more and will have to navigate the intricate web of laws and entrenched attitudes to find their potential. Every new technology has and will be abused, but has resulted in new art or advances a genre into a new future.

In part 3, I'll talk about new art forms created by social networks like Tik Tok and YouTube, which are rooted in the older television age.

Part 3: New Art Forms

I talked about new art forms that could emerge from the new A.I. era, and honestly, I don't know what that will be. 

If I did, I'd probably be wrong, looking in the wrong direction, mistaken for a press agent trying to hype an artist or an egotistical self-promoter if I'm talking about my art (which is permissible under the sacred commandments of selling art to the public).

When the first Cave Persons saw a stick and colored clay, it didn't occur to them that drawing and painting could evolve from those objects. 

However, there is a way to see where that new art may come from and who will do it.

One way is to remember the 60s. Uh, that is if you're a Boomer. The rest of you will know it as "ancient times."

At first, the mainstream called boomer music "hippie music," "noise," drug music," and the musicians and fans described as "stoned dirty and smelly long-haired freaks." The Boomers returned the compliment by calling their elders "the establishment," "warmongers," and "hypocrites" and declared that they had no interest in "becoming part of the system," at least until they got past draft age and had to start paying bills.

This cycle repeated when Boomer artists became rich and famous and began to trash-talk Punk and Disco, whose adherents were happy to return the favor. Life is a circle, as they say. So, one clue as to where the next generation of artists who'll create new art forms is to find a group or subculture that the mainstream depicts as young idiots engaging in silly or antisocial antics that make sensible adults shake their heads.

Well, we don't need to look any further than our smartphones, which is good because we hate having to look up from our screens.

One of the places where new art is coming from is social media, particularly sites like TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, or wherever the young hang out. They enjoy the requisite disdain of their elders, so it's a promising area to look.

From an artist's perspective, plenty of interesting stuff is going on.

One form that's emerged is the 15-second video, or "short." That's been around for decades in advertising but is now a staple in social media and relatively new. It bears watching where it can go (or not; it may already be mainstream and boring). As an old fart, my impression is that it's sort of a modern offshoot of photography. It's a captured moment but in live motion. The aesthetics are similar, though I'm sure some photographers might disagree.

I'll go more into social media forms in a later entry, but there's a more controversial example of media that A.I. is revolutionizing, and it's creating the same combination of anger, fear, concern, and controversy that rock and roll and Punk did in their early stages.

I'm talking about "deep-fakes," which have enormous potential and capability to harm, present possibilities that could upend media industries like Hollywood, are already being used in legitimate and illegal projects, and are very controversial.

The concept of deep fakes has been around for centuries, but A.I. appears to be taking it to a new level of potential and fearsome abuse. However, there's no question that it'll be part of the media and the artistic scene now and in the future. There's an adage that the press is generally late in covering a new trend or phenomenon, so it's safe to assume that what we see and hear about deep fakes isn't the cutting edge.

It's a complex subject, so I'll devote an entire entry or two to it in future entries.

- Al HANDA

 July 31, 2023

Article: The Blues, Rap, And ChatGPT: Part One

Article: The Blues, Rap, And ChatGPT: Part One

I'm sure most of you have heard about the new ChatGPT and the various views, ranging from embarrassingly uncritical raves to it being a third column for the AI conquerors who'll destroy humankind. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle; there's no doubt it'll be misused, but from my initial exposure to it, it looks like the next wave in search engines. It also has the feel of a paradigm shift and could profoundly change the tech landscape.

I know it's new, but think it will be a great quick and dirty tool for research tasks. However, if you're aiming to write a definitive essay on a subject above the level of regular Internet web content, then using a standard search engine to follow up on every reference is still the best way. It's best to do that anyway to doublecheck the Chatbot's output as it does express opinions and interpretations and hedges a lot. It made some statements that aren't correct and gives kinda sorta maybe nice sounding non-answers for conclusions.

The fact that it occasionally gives out false information makes it Internet-ready, so I'm not sure what the fuss is about. It lies less than humans and doesn't project insufferable fake virtue. However, as the software improves, I imagine it'll soon create text that makes it indistinguishable from politicians and Hollywood  Publicity Departments. The wrong facts here and there are harmless in an early draft; a good writer should check sources anyway and is assumed to have a point of view, so the Chatbot doesn't need to provide one.

I've been working on a piece about the connection between blues, particularly from the 20s to early Rap, and decided to see what the Chatbot would say. 

I'm going to present the answers the Chatbot gave to my questions, and after each one, I'll comment on the provided info. One thing, unless you want bland High School report style writing, this Chatbot won't give you a piece that can be cut and pasted onto a pro-level web page. It'll give you a good rough draft and do some of the heavy lifting.

The idea of using pre-generated copy for news and features isn't new. Newspapers got most of their national and international content from UPI or AP stories which were rewritten or edited by a reporter if not run straight from the feed. Most news organizations who still employ human beings will, if not already, use AI to generate on-time copy and maybe change a few words to make it read better. Political bias can be easily programmed in, so the transition should be seamless.

My initial point and I stress that it's a specific observation, is that there are similarities between early blues from the 20s and 70s rap music that originated from the African American street scene and the Sugerhill Label. I'll give you the Chatbot answer in bold italic, followed by my observations, any corrections, and my own opinion. Interestingly, my Grammarly software asserted that the Chatbot's output had several errors (which I didn't correct).

Question: Tell me about the similarities between Rap music and Blues.

"Rap music and blues share several similarities in terms of their origins and themes. Both genres developed from African American communities, with blues emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and rap emerging in the 1970s. Both genres often deal with themes of struggle, hardship, and the experiences of marginalized communities. Additionally, both rap and blues often rely heavily on the use of improvisation and storytelling in their lyrics. Some notable similarities include the use of call-and-response and the emphasis on the performer's personal experiences and emotions."

That's an excellent standard answer that fits the modern view of both genres. Still, as someone who's listened to Blues since my teen years, I would say that the first half of the answer reflects a bias that Blues is purely about struggle and oppression, which is a view that emerged in the 60s when the demographic of the performers and audience began to include whites. That's a nuanced observation, and I stress that my view is strictly my opinion. The main reason the definition changed is starting from the 60s, the audience demographic began to shift, and most of the studies and documentation about the Blues were written by white scholars, writers, and record collectors. 

Most of those attempts to create a historical record were balanced. In other words, while there is no doubt that African Americans are and were oppressed, that didn't result in one-dimensional art. The Blues was a music form encompassing the full spectrum of entertainment and social expression. The range is vast enough that any opinion about the music can be both right and wrong and subject to dispute or the need to add scope.

I remember writing an article for my Delta Snake Review in the 80s, which listed all the subjects covered by Blues songs in the 20s and 30s and found well over a hundred. The themes ranged from having a good time, lousy time, booze, drugs, historical events, animals, philosophy, politics, sociology, religion, and the full range of sexual preferences. More than a few of the female singers were bi or gay. Unfortunately, most of these themes were bowdlerized out of the canon in the mainstream 60s reissues of blues records (though not in the small label releases).

The 20-30s Blues was also about rebellion and often characterized as "Devil Music" by the mainstream church, and as said in a previous blog entry, that was a theme that came up in classic blues songs like Robert Johnson's Hellhound On My Trail.

A short overview of the Blues would be; that it was part of the more extensive African American Music and Entertainment culture, and the Blues artists were primarily from rural areas like the Mississippi Delta (though every region had a distinctive style). While these artists were performing and recording, there was also Jazz from Louis Armstrong (which continued with artists like Duke Ellington) and other artists. Back then, a "Blues" was a particular type of song or instrumental that used a specific scale. In technical terms, a standard eight-note scale with the third and seventh notes flatted to create a "minor" feel. It was a common number in Jazz and didn't sound very similar to Delta Blues slide or ragtime.

To understand what happened to Blues and how it led to rock and roll, one has to look at how African American popular music evolved, from Blues and Trad Jazz to BeBop, Big Band, to Soul and Rap. That's a general description and omits dozens of developments like Funk, Hendrix-influenced Black Rock and Funk, and of course, Blues which became racially diverse.

The link between early Blues and Rap was that both involved vocal improvisation over what Rap artists call a "beat." In the case of the Blues, that meant a "vamp" or rhythmic music on a guitar that the singer sang over. It was a popular form in impromptu concerts in Jook Joints and clubs and a form of dance music. African Americans, like everybody else, enjoyed entertainment. The blues were also supposed to make you feel good too.

The sixties were a vital era for Blues. Here's was Chatbot said,

Question: How did the blues change in the 60s with white artists and audiences coming in

"In the 60s, the blues underwent significant changes as white artists and audiences became more involved in the genre. This led to a broader interpretation and commercialization of the blues, resulting in a fusion of blues with other genres such as rock and roll. The blues became more electrified and the use of amplified instruments became more prevalent. Additionally, the blues began to be performed for larger and more diverse audiences, which influenced the way the music was performed and the lyrics that were written. This period marked the beginning of blues-rock and marked a departure from traditional rural blues styles."

That's a good answer and perfect for a piece with space or word restrictions. The answer is more complex than that, of course. I would add:

The 60s was a significant era for Blues. So much of the urban Black audience had moved on to R&B and Soul (and Jazz, etc.), which was as natural an evolution as whites moving on from Folk and Big Band, and it became mainly a club-level scene that was still full of vigor and innovative artists. That split the Blues into two main camps; from the hard-edged electric music flourishing in places like Chicago to the older artists from the 20s-30s who were beginning to be "rediscovered" in Folk Festivals and small label recordings. That "rediscovery" label must have annoyed more than a few African Americans, I would think, as the more correct term would be an introduction to a new generation or revival. We'll get more into that in Part 2.

The usual historical line is that the English discovered the Blues and created their own brand that reintroduced the music to America. That's true, but it's more complicated than that. Among the earliest blues that made it to England via old records was 20s jug band music by artists like Gus Cannon, which helped start the skiffle craze, where young men who later formed groups like the Beatles, and got early exposure to music and performing. After that came the stream of other blues and jazz records, and artists like Muddy Waters found an enthusiastic audience for their music.

That, plus the emergence of Elvis in the 50s, changed the course of blues and R&B in America, and that history is out of the scope of my article.

Obviously, I didn't ask the Bot to write an entire article. That's my job as a writer, but exploring how this new tool can assist has been interesting. It could be useful to publications that want to generate a lot of content without dealing with writers or deadlines and want to crank out copy on trending subjects. It also looks suitable for creating bio and introductory sections for the beginning and end of articles and interviews (if the subject doesn't provide one), and straight news items.

So, Chatbot agrees there's a connection, and in Part 2, we'll see what it says about early Rap.

Al Handa

2025