Recommendations of the Editorial team
Jack Antonoff has a term for people who use AI to produce art: “godless whores.” In a letter to his fans that he posted on Instagram on Wednesday – a few weeks before his band Bleachers releases their next album “Everyone for Ten Minutes” on May 22nd – he confessed to “ancient ritual of writing, recording and performing as given to us by God”.
“What we do is an ancient ritual,” he wrote. “You don’t have to write music anymore. You don’t have to record it, and you don’t have to get the band on stage. And yet, for us, the idea of optimizing what we do is a complete miss of the very purpose of what drives us in the first place. We – myself, the band, and frankly everyone I know – have never wanted to make this work faster or easier. We’ve never resented the randomness and magic that goes into it.”
He advised anyone who liked the idea of working with AI to “drive straight down that cliff,” adding, “We’re genuinely glad to see you go.” He also referred to AI users as “bad actors willingly exposing themselves through trash,” while he described artists who don’t use AI as “the struggling greats” – and stressed that even as their numbers dwindle, he, his band and his friends remain “more determined than ever” to “show what comes from within.”
Sacred process, no optimization
“Writing, recording and performing music – that’s it,” he wrote. “Nothing is more embarrassing than believing there is a way to optimize this sacred process.”
In March, ROLLING STONE published a report on how producers, songwriters and artists have integrated AI into their work processes – calling it the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell era of AI in music.” “Interestingly, according to some sources, it is young people who are most skeptical about AI: In a survey of music producers by the sample library Tracklib, the youngest age group – respondents in their 20s – had the most negative opinions about AI,” the report said. Antonoff agreed with this assessment in his letter.
“AI may eventually get to the point where it imitates human imperfections – but I just can’t imagine that happening,” Charlie Puth said in the article. “I see us humans getting smarter.”
