By Tom Duncan, Advanced technology analyst

May 2023

 

At Aim, we are acutely aware of the importance of harnessing AI technology in a variety of ways in order to create innovative solutions to complex problems. To be able to do that successfully, it’s important for our team to think outside the box when considering the power of AI and its potential uses. Continue reading to find out how Tom used ChatGPT to assist in finding a creative solution to a creative problem.

 

Much has been made of the potential for Artificial Intelligence to create works of ‘art’ in the form of sound and images. Of course there are many critics of the artistic output created by AI, notwithstanding the more philosophical question of whether anything created by an AI can be considered to be art.

 

However, a good artist knows that any new technology has a potential to be harnessed as an ally in the pursuit of artistic success. As a musician and songwriter, however much I try to put it off, sometimes I have to put down my guitars and keyboards and pick up my pen and paper to write song lyrics. This is a skill that has almost nothing in common with the other skills required as a musician, so it can feel quite daunting if it’s not something that you’re trained in. Moving from the abstract process of expressing moods and feelings via sound to the much more literal process of expressing those same concepts in the medium of words takes a significant neurological shift.

 

This week, once again the task of writing lyrics reared its ugly head. I’d finished the song, there was no two ways about it. However much I yearned to put the task off, pick up my guitar and add another spurious sonic layer, being honest with myself, the song was done. In the past I’ve used the William S Burroughs ‘cut-up’ method, in which fragments of sentences can be taken from all sorts of places… newspapers, random wikipedia articles, the sides of cereal boxes, old books… and subsequently cut up and jammed together in some sort of unholy matrimony to create abstract word paintings. The method has been used by lyricists for inspiration over the years, perhaps most famously by David Bowie. However, one frustration that I’ve always found with this method is that it’s quite difficult to end up with phrases with the correct number of syllables.

 

Enter ChatGPT.

 

“Write me 3 sentences, each containing 8 syllables in the style of David Bowie's Black Star album”

 

In darkness, stars ignite, celestial guide.

Lost heroes sing, a cosmic requiem.

Blackened veils shroud life's mysterious dance.

 

There’s certainly some beautiful phrases there, but they don’t necessarily express what I want to express.

 

“Write me 3 sentences, each containing 8 syllables in the style of The Cure's Disintegration album”

 

Echoes linger, melancholy embrace.

Whispers weep, lost in endless solace.

Disintegrate, shadows embrace the night.

 

I can repeat this process over and over again, and ChatGPT will produce sentences with the correct number of syllables, and using words that have similarities with the words used by the musicians I grew up listening to, and have been inspired by. Of course, there’s no need to specifically mention other artists in my requests to ChatGPT:

 

“Write me 3 sentences, each containing 8 syllables with a feeling of anxiety about AI taking over”

 

Silent gears turn, usurping human reign.

Future's shroud thickens, autonomy wanes.

Uneasy whispers spread, technology's grip.

 

As you can see, leaning on Chat GPT in this way has allowed me to perform a more focused version of the cut-up method. Let’s cut the results up, re-arrange, and see what we come out with…

 

In darkness, autonomy wanes.

Uneasy whispers, silent gears grip

Echoes thicken, disintegrate

 

A perfectly serviceable and somewhat dystopian lyric, created with just a little help from AI.

 

Over the course of history, many changes in technology have been seen as a threat to the ways in which things ‘should be done’ in the world of music. Losing the harpsichord’s steady and controlled lack of dynamic range by introducing the piano (or more accurately the ‘pianoforte’ – literally the ‘quiet loud’.) The electric guitar posing a threat to the more restrained sound of the acoustic guitar. The invention of the synthesizer allowing musicians to set off entire melodies at the press of one button. The supposed warmth of tape recording giving way to digital recording. Anyone is still perfectly welcome to pick up an acoustic guitar or a harpsichord (although the latter is quite heavy) – new technology doesn’t mean the death of what came before, it just means more tools in the artist’s shed. I would have loved to have been able to ask David Bowie what he thought about the potential of ChatGPT, but I suppose we’ll never know.

 

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