Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins believes that artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize music but will also lead to a lot of bad music. In an extensive interview on the Zach Sang Show, he shared his thoughts on the topic.
"Because once a young artist figures out that they can use AI to game the system and write a better song, they're not going to spend 10,000 hours in a basement like I did," he explains, "They're just not."
He was then asked if "real art" can be achieved through using AI, to which he answers, "Ultimately, art is about discernment, right? Somebody was telling me the other day about how a famous rap artist would work. They would bring in all these different people and they would sort of pick the beat that they were most attracted to."
Corgan continues, "Now, let's change that to AI. 'Hey AI, give me 50 beats,' Listen and, eh, not really feeling it. 'AI give me 50 beats from the 50 most famous rap songs of all time.' Okay, ooh, I like number 37, that inspires me."
"Are they ripping it off? Not really, because I did the same thing, I just did it analog. I listened to 10,000 songs and I was like, 'That beat,' so, what's the difference?" Corgan argues that while AI streamlines the process of music creation, it could lead to a dilution of quality and originality in the music industry, "So, you think there's a lot of bad music coming out now, you just wait."
The full interview is here:
