OP-ED: J NUI – 'I Fell For An AI Artist, And That's A Problem'

On the way to work last week, I was listening to an algorithmic playlist, you know, the usual 'You might like…' rabbit hole. A song came on that made me stop and check out who the artist was. The artist was singing these incredible R&B vocal runs, but doing so in a traditional rap cadence. It was extremely impressive.

I thought, how could someone sing like Kehlani with the rhythmic acuity of Kendrick Lamar? It was almost unbelievable. Then I looked at the artist's profile.

I went to the artist's social media page and discovered that the artist was entirely AI-generated—the sounds, the pictures, the videos. Everything was generated by AI. There was no hiding this fact either, as the artist's bio and captions clearly voiced that this entire project was generated by AI. I checked the comments to see what people were saying (which I also understand could be fake and botted), and to my surprise, almost all of the comments were written in adoration of this artist as if it were a real person. 'You are so beautiful!!', 'Your voice is incredible 😍'.

Technology moves at an exponential rate. It was almost inevitable that we would be where we are today. Human endeavour is a strong drive. It's a collective effort not led by any one person, company, or group.

We, as a people, strive towards discovery, almost for its own sake. It's this sense of curiosity that transcends all cultures. A feeling that we must keep 'moving' towards something else. You could draw parallels with the modern view of economic development, almost like a requirement to become more efficient and productive than the year before.

Now standing in the way of this colossal force of technology is one of the oldest forms of human expression – MUSIC.

I go by the artist name J Nui. I've been producing music for most of my life. Throughout this journey, I have always been an avid explorer of new technologies, from peer-to-peer file sharing to cryptocurrency NFTs.

We often separate internet-based technologies as non-human. We approach the obsessive use of mobile phones and doom-scrolling as behaviours that are not 'natural' to humans. However, I tend to lean more towards the view that humans are part of nature, and therefore, you could treat everything we do as a species as part of nature. Enter AI.

I think a lot about a few important questions: Are we in the middle of a paradigm shift in human existence? Has technological advancement reached a threshold that requires a critical distinction between human and non-human? What does this mean for human-made art? What does this mean for me as a musician?

We now enter the grey area of human ethics, morals and feelings. There is no definitive wrong or right answer here. Ethically, AI-generated music hugely impacts human artists who already find themselves in a space where royalties are abysmal, going 'viral' is the requirement for half-decent exposure, algorithms lead music discovery and the audience attention span is two seconds.

On top of this, we need time, effort and usually money to craft the idea of the song, record it, mix it, master it and develop cover art, etc. Compared to AI music software that's available at a low cost, and can create entire songs within seconds with a plethora of other AI tools to create visuals, it really does seem like a David (human) versus Goliath (AI-generated) fight.

Here is where it gets interesting for me. If we just look at music in its final form, who am I to say what's right and wrong? If AI-generated music is evoking emotions and expressions from real people, is the source of how that music came to be really able to be questioned? If an AI-generated song gets someone through a tough week, a bad break-up, or the loss of a loved one, can we still make the argument that it's ethically wrong because a human didn't make the song?

My personal view is that we should always prioritise human-made art in all its forms. However, we may be at the beginning stages of AI music's novelty. Perhaps this is a wave we as human artists have to wait out and push through.

I believe there will be a horizon that's crossed where the audience will want to know the music they listen to is 'human'. The theory of 'The Uncanny Valley' comes to mind. This is the idea that something becomes too close to human likeness, but not quite real enough, and causes an uneasiness in our perception of it. Maybe we've already crossed that valley?

The uncanny valley theory isn't just about faces that look almost real. It's about a feeling. A feeling that something human has been imitated in an attempt to fool you, but is unable to imitate it enough to be it.

The problem isn't that AI can make music; it's that it can impersonate the idea of a person. The algorithm rewards it just the same. If the future is music without musicians, then we should at least be honest about what we are trading away. I know which side I'm on, and I don't have the answers – but I do have a new song out!

SEE U 2 is out now on all doom-scrolling devices and platforms. It's the second collaboration between myself, J Nui, and Martine Kite. It's a mash-up of Dance, Hip-Hop and UK Garage about having a crush on someone who doesn't live in the same city as you. Give it a human listen, find me on social media or on the streets of Brisbane and let me know what you think of the new song, AI-generated music or anything in general, from yours truly, a human.

SEE U 2 is out now.