Music Can Thrive in the AI Era

the birth of chatgpt Large language models have brought a collection of concerns about allowing users to quickly subvert processes that once required human time, effort, emotion, and understanding. And further, the tech sector’s often stormy relationship with regulation and ethical oversight has many fearing a future in which artificial intelligence replaces humans in the workplace and stifles human creativity.

While most of these alarms are well-founded, we should also consider the possibility that human creativity can blossom at this age. A.I. In 2025, we will begin to see this manifest in our collective cultural response to technology. To examine how culture and creativity can adapt to the age of AI, we’ll use hip-hop as an example. It is one of the most profitable forms the music Ever invented, and one that has already been influenced by major language models. We’ve all heard AI-powered rap songs by popular artists and seen them go viral, easily mistaken for authentic, original music. For example, during the recent rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, an AI-generated song called “One Shot” was released, and wrongly attributed to Lamar. In 2025 we should expect more AI-generated fake music, especially fueled by the social media circus where being the loudest and most provocative can get the instant attention of millions.

In 2025 we believe that creative engagement with AI will begin to take three different forms.

The first can be described as “total surrender”: don’t run from technology, but lean into the fact that artificial intelligence can create terabytes of music in minutes, just as enjoyable as the music created by our favorite artists. While this strategy will involve robots making music, there will be human-driven aspects of music culture. For example, AI has a human element in how music is curated (think successful DJs), and a new industry of art critics and commentators. This is not unlike the TikTok influencers who currently drive the massive popularity of debris in art and technology. Human-led discussions of AI products can be big business and will spawn a new influencer culture that compares and evaluates these advances.

A second strategy would involve an implicit embrace of artificial intelligence in industry, where creativity becomes a healthy hybrid of human and machine. In the case of hip-hop, artists like 50 Cent have recently expressed their enjoyment of AI-assisted country-music renditions of hip-hop classics (often made for humor). It’s a model we’ll keep seeing: AI-assisted reimagining or remixing of classic songs. Further, we can observe the details of this model: the growth of a battle-rap scene driven by AI algorithms trained on data sets of human artists. Or it could even be that rap duos consist of two members: a rapper and their AI-trained sidekick (with a mixed hook of human and AI singers).

This kind of robo-franken-hip-hop leaves a lot of room for clever engagement and could create a whole new subgenre of music. This would also have business implications: artists could be remunerated based on their training data, which would be an improvement over past and current hip-hop business models. The possibilities are as limited as the infinite combination of human intelligence and computing power.

Finally, 2025 will mark the official start of a great irony: AI art will evoke a new appreciation for classical man-made ruins. As the volume of AI creation rapidly surpasses that of humans, highly regarded human bodies will become more valuable. For example, one of the messages emerging from the 50-year celebration of hip-hop is that society still lacks a common appreciation for the art form. Fewer than a dozen hip-hop artists or groups have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also, very few of hip-hop’s founding acts are wealthy, as they created the art form in an era when it was not financially viable. As a retro-tech industry emerges that celebrates the simple devices of yesterday, we’ll see a new appreciation for music from the analog era.

The rise of AI and related technologies will cast a new light on original music that was created before its advent. It would require an appreciation for proto-hip-hop, which could be transformed into a profitable industry around the preservation of original music and a corresponding appreciation of artists. AI can help bring hip-hop to its roots, finally getting the respect it’s always deserved, and a place among high art.

Human technology and art are two institutions defined by our capacity to wonder. Yes, the relationship between creativity and AI will be a whirlwind in the near future, but 2025 will be a turning point where we begin to embrace more possibilities. There may be creative light at the end of the technology tunnel, where analog-age art forms like hip-hop can thrive in the land of large language models and whatever the age of AI will provide.