00:00Can musicians benefit from AI tools?
00:03Short answer, yes.
00:04AI is helping this musician who lives with Parkinson's disease continue creating songs.
00:11Samuel Smith was diagnosed with a neurological condition in 2020.
00:16Parkinson's disease reduced his ability to play guitar.
00:19Dropped out of the sky, thought I had stiffness in my wrist.
00:22Next thing I knew I had a diagnosis.
00:24And one of the biggest challenges for me was my music.
00:28Over five years after his diagnosis, making music looks very different for him now.
00:33Sam increasingly relies on AI music tools to continue creating songs.
00:38He first records melodies and lyrics.
00:44He then uses prompts in apps like Suno and Udio to generate instrumentation, mood and style.
00:51Through generative AI models trained on large data sets of recorded music,
00:55the apps create full synthetic arrangements.
00:59I thought it was over now.
01:02These AI outputs serve as guides for musicians who later record final versions using live instruments.
01:08For 20 years I've been a guitarist and I miss it profoundly.
01:12So then I'm faced with a question.
01:14Don't play, don't be creative or find a way out, find a route.
01:18And for me this was the route.
01:20And the profound thing for me is that AI is not replacing anything for me.
01:24It's unlocking, it's enabling.
01:26But even generative AI music tools have their limitations.
01:30Current AI music systems still struggle with fully nailing a songwriter's intended style.
01:35High quality AI demos require extensive iteration,
01:39sometimes up to 150 attempts per track, according to Smith.
01:43And let's not forget the AI music models are trained on data made by human musicians,
01:49often without compensation or even consent.
01:52All of this while AI-generated music also floods streaming platforms
01:56and takes a share from human musicians.
01:59So while AI tools can help musicians like Sam keep creating,
02:04more regulation is needed to make these models truly beneficial for human musicians.
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