Another day, another example of AI awfulness.
Just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean that you should. I fear that this is going to be a continual statement as tech reaches the point where it stops being useful and starts to become dystopian. We’re already there to a large degree and where things go in the next year or so might be decisive in terms of what we embrace as useful, productive tools and what we reject as monstrous and oppressive. The Tech Bros are cheering on the destruction of art and human experience because such things are alien concepts to them – and too many people are being dazzled by the marvels of artificial intelligence, in large part because it allows them to do things that they would otherwise not be able to do themselves. There’s a positive to that – small start-ups and sole traders with no budget to hire models, photographers, artists and designers can at least produce promotional imagery, levelling the playing field a little bit. But the negatives far outweigh these positives.
Let’s leave aside the thorny issue of bigger companies that do have the budget to hire the above-mentioned creatives but now choose not to for a moment. That’s a more complex issue than people would like to admit. Instead, let’s focus on the undeniably grotesque. Something like the recreation of dead rock stars.
A long list of musicians – among them former bandmates Kenney Jones and Jerry Shirley, Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Bryan Adams, Paul Weller, Paul Rodgers, Glenn Hughes and Gary Kemp – have signed a statement condemning plans to recreate former Small Faces/Humble Pie frontman Steve Marriott for new recordings. The protest was organised by Marriott’s children who – thanks to the quirks of British law and Marriott dying without a will – have no legal control over his estate. That belongs entirely to Toni Marriott, whom he married less than two years before his death. Toni has no problem with an AI recreation being passed off as the real thing, it seems. Neither does the estate manager Chris France, who commented “At present, there are no confirmed plans to use Steve Marriott’s voice on AI recordings. That does not mean a deal will not be done with one of several suitors who have made offers.”
Now, call me a cynic but “at present, there are no confirmed plans” sounds very much like the sort of thing that people say just before that thing happens. It seems that the only thing holding things back is the poor quality of the AI recreations of Steve Marriott. Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley has heard two tracks: “It sounded like someone trying to sound like someone trying to sound like Steve Marriott,” he told Variety. But AI quality seemingly improves by the day. Surely it is only a matter of time before rough demos can be enhanced or entirely new songs recorded that would pass muster with the casual listener. Presumably, any AI recreation would only have to be mentioned in the small print (or not mentioned at all online), much like those ‘new recordings by the original artist’ greatest hits albums that offer flaccid imitations of the songs that you are familiar with. For those not in the know, AI recordings could be taken as the real thing.
In fact, they’d need to be taken as the real thing because how else would they sell? It would be like a tribute act passing themselves off as the original artist – and no matter how good they are, they’re still a copy. Tribute bands have their place as live imitations of bands no longer around – but why on earth would you buy a record by one of them?
It’s one thing for the likes of Abba and Kiss to set up ‘live’ shows featuring holographic recreations and pre-recorded tracks – at least they are still alive to approve of and control the project, as empty an imitation as it is. Marriott, who died in 1991 when all this was still the domain of science fiction, has not given permission for anyone to recreate him digitally. Who knows what Steve Marriott might’ve made of it – but it seems unlikely that he would be thrilled. Much like the TV commercials that feature digitally recreated celebrities shilling products that they probably wouldn’t have touched with a bargepole in life, this feels like someone pissing on the graves of the dead.
No wonder musicians are outraged. What happens here could happen to them. The estates of dead musicians are often keen to exploit the demand for more product – rejected or unfinished recordings, demos, live performances and the like are all fair game and often have real value for fans. Even old vocal tracks given new backing tracks still have a certain authenticity. But AI feels like a step beyond that. The roughest demo recording is still a recording of the actual artist(s); AI, though, is just an imitation. As Marriott’s daughter Mollie comments, “This is only for money, not art nor appreciation.” Frankly though, even if the reasons were entirely altruistic, this feels like something that we could do without.
It might be something that can’t be stopped – let’s face it, even if the Marriott project is kicked into the long grass, it will only be a matter of time before someone else does it. We need new rules to stop AI duplicates being passed off as the real thing and – just as importantly – we need fans to let the dead stay dead. Be content with what exists and support actual living artists, who are now struggling more than ever as the Tech Bros set out to crush them into oblivion. Remember – if you tolerate this, your work could be next.
DAVID FLINT
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