I was able say that my work anticipated this New Yorker article by Jaron Lanier - whoa! I've read two of his books, and find his writing pretty compelling. In the New Yorker piece, he argues that AI is "a tool, not a creature." WE control this technology; artificial intelligence is simply a mashup of what humans have created. Lanier says that artificial intelligence isn't actually intelligence at all, but is better defined as "an innovative form of social collaboration." My own book chapter is about to be published by Bloomsbury Press - preorder at the link! I wrote it with the assistance of Brian Drawert, a colleague in the Computer Science Department here at UNCA. It's based on a conference presentation that I gave on mashups and artificial intelligence, and when the conference organizers invited me to turn the presentation into a book chapter, I asked Brian if he could help me add content on the AI itself.
My original idea about mashups and AI came from two different posts on this very blog; I also wrote an update after I gave the conference presentation. In the chapter, we investigate three websites that seem to be examples of artificial intelligence creating mashups. Chapter spoiler: only one of the three is actually real AI (or, as a friend recently suggested as a more appropriate term, machine learning). I conclude that as of now, it's not possible for a computer to create a convincing mashup. Can we all breathe a sigh of relief? That's what many of us are worried about - machines are going to take our jobs, usurp our creativity, and render humans useless. I don't think we need to worry, but not because the technology isn't good enough (it's not good enough yet, but it will be); we don't need to worry because every time humans have been able to automate a process, more creative processes have arisen in the wake of that new technology. The invention of the sewing machine didn't put tailors out of work; it allowed them to work faster and make more elaborate garments. (Lanier gives a futuristic example about automated tree trimming and the potential for holographic landscaping.)
It's important to note that I'm writing about one specific use of machine learning in the arts. Just today, the president of Microsoft called for regulations on AI, and there are different risks in other areas that are beyond the scope of my research. But I do see the artistic potential in this technology as being mostly positive. Lance Weiler, an art professor at Columbia University knows that machine learning is becoming used more and more in the art world. Rather than bury his head in the sand and insist that his students never touch a computer again, he is teaching them to use these new digital tools to their advantage, to become more creative, to collaborate in ways that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. In the same article, Jane South of the Pratt Institute "pointed to previous technological inventions [photography and Xerox machines] that critics worried would kill the artist profession but only made it stronger." We can see these same fears about art 100 years ago in the work of Walter Benjamin, and about technology 400 years before that in the work of Conrad Gessner, who feared that the printing press was unleashing an unmanageable flood of information on humanity, to its great detriment. I hope that with this many years of hindsight, we can agree that both photography and printing press have, in fact, led to more human achievement than harm.
There will always be detractors to new technology. There were those that questioned the authenticity of recorded music. There were those that thought that the drum machine heralded the end of live music performance. I was able to get Rave DJ to make a good mashup, but I had to be very specific about the songs that I input. I knew that the songs I put in could be mashed up to good effect. The limitation is that despite my own area of expertise, I don't actually have the technical know-how to make a mashup. This program allowed me to bring my idea to life without spending hours and hours becoming a software expert in addition to a musical one. And that's the point of Rave DJ. In the words of its CEO, Mike Pazaratz, "Technology allows more people to do things."
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