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Final verdict: 7/10 ★★⋆˙⟡☆☆
“Back in my day,” I say in my croaking old lady voice as I recline in my worn-out armchair, “life was simpler. There was no significant difference between how we lived, how our children lived, and how our grandchildren lived. Everything more or less remained its good old self through generations, and time was not the potent poison that it is now. The position of the stars shifted continuously, yes, but we all worked on a farm, at the end of the day. The farm, man, I stepped on so much cow waste and I contracted a billion diseases that the underqualified village doctor chalked up to a routine case of ‘female hysteria.’ It was all most suboptimal, but you see, back in my day, we didn’t have shoes. Back in my day, we walked 5 hours to get to school every morning, through snowy meadows and excruciating heat – only I never went to school. I am a lady who was denied an education, and I was married away at the age of 12. I had my first son 4 months later… Back in my day, we did not know what an ‘Inter-net’ was. Back in my day, life was simpler, and the only intelligence that could be touted ‘artificial’ was that of my husband. He used big words like ‘beer’ all the time in a vain attempt to compensate for being a dullard… he was intelligent, but it was all oh so artificial…” I pause to cough my lungs out. Smoking four packs a day really takes a toll on a man, it appears, and besides, my health is not what it used to be. “I hated my husband… God have mercy on him.”
I am an old soul, people frequently tell me so. I am proudly chronically offline, and as such, I like to spend my days engaging with the real world. I do believe that telephones mark the end of an era, the era in which human intellect was valued and people did something that could even remotely be described as “glorying in life.” This position of mine is commonly mistaken for an aversity to change, and… you know, I can’t even deny that. It is an aversity to change, a rampant one at that. I was born in the big 2006, which is not long ago in the grand scheme of things, yet I have witnessed so much technological advancement in my days that it is causing me a raging headache. I am 19 years old, yet I feel at least 119 years old with how fast times are a-changin’. I still remember watching DVDs on a PlayStation 2, and before long we got streaming services and the PlayStation 5 – it really is funny that I mention this, because streaming and the PlayStation (any iteration) are far from the most recent technology there exists by this point. Regardless, it does do something to illustrate my point. I think it is a little unfair that I am condemned to living in this timeline, but I would be lying if I denied that it is a little thrilling, too. The environment is going to shit, politics are a mess (to put it mildly), and doomsday is upon us. It’s really not a good look for mankind but… what can you do? Greed gets the best of everyone, and everyone wants to speedrun progress like no there’s tomorrow. The problem with that is, when you operate as if there is no tomorrow, there tends to be a tomorrow, and that is why reckless development is not as glamorous as its name implies. I am petrified, but I am trying to make the most of it. I am additionally deathly scared of telephones.
Well… we got AI-generated music now, apparently. If only I had a time machine, I would travel back to the 1970s to tell people that – that just 50 short years later, computers would be able to make music out of thin air. I would watch their eyelids twitch as the aneurism spread through their being, and it would not be entertaining, for I would go right down with them – I am so lost. I am a musician myself, so naturally, I am always looking for new ways in which to compose music and experiment with sound, but this right here? I’m not entirely sure I can advocate for it. It doesn’t feel right, and with both moral and artistic concerns façading all AI art-related discourse, I am right there with other perplexed artists. The kids call me a “millennial,” and my agemates call me a “boomer” – two sides of the same penny. I prefer to bite back and call them “Mr.-Can’t-Construct-A-Complete-Thought-Without-Consulting-ChatGPT.” It helps me maintain a semblance of self-integrity, get a load of this guy!
It really is a lot more nuanced than that, but I am not smart enough to pinpoint said nuances – you’ll have to make do with my simpleton commentary that promises the existence of nuance while steadfastly refusing to prove it. I am not saying that “AI = bad,” because it is a tool that can be usefully applied in many disciplines to skyrocket efficiency and lead innovation – but I am saying that it has little – if any – place in the arts. Art is only art when it is intentional, and by definition, non-sentient computer networks cannot fathom intention when generating “artwork” or doing much of anything else. So, is AI art (a label I take to include AI music) really art? I’ll leave that question with you. I suppose the person prompting the AI to spit out the music does so with intention, but where do the boundaries lie? You can’t call a railway a dirt road, can you? That is another question I’ll leave with you.
Wow, that was a heated introduction – let’s lighten the atmosphere, let’s get down and dirty to some AI-generated tunes to hold humanity in contempt to; “ai12die” by “ai12die,” ladies and people. It is an AI-generated project that wears its artificial nature on its sleeve – all ever so proudly, because we refuse to monkey around this terrain. A 15-song compilation, “ai12die” features two AI rappers – the titular ai12die (who is a “sentient musical AI and he is suicidal because everyone hates him because he is the best rapper alive,” hence why his name is a near homophone of “AI want to die”) and Gina Da Lesbian (who is just like me, “fr”). The lyrics are human-written courtesy of Charles Luck, who coordinated the project, but the rest was all left up to “the machine” (read: “the machine”). What I find interesting is that despite this unlikely origin of the record, it is an overtly cynical and self-aware tale of artificial intelligence – probably due to the fact the lyrics are human-written, because again, AI cannot be self-aware. It is an indeterminate notion that eludes me, therefore it cannot be real, and please do get that in your noggins.
It all starts with “Beep Bop Boop,” a piece in which our boy ai12die sings about being an AI, bringing forth the “all music is music regardless of the mode through which it was produced” argument yet never quite elaborating, because this is a song, and not politics. He describes an uncanny realization of self which honestly made me feel like the room was spinning around me – a statement that you may take as you will. “Underwear,” the follow-up track, similarly conveys an extremely human sentiment – social anxiety and the tactic of imagining people in their underwear to deal with the former – in an equally artificial fashion. The juxtaposition of uniquely worldly experiences with abstract computer shenanigans that I am too feeble-minded to comprehend is tripping me up like no tomorrow, which is a problem, because there will most likely exist a tomorrow. It’s all most interesting, really, which has me feeling extremely conflicted, and frankly, a little hungry.
By the time track 3 clanks about, Gina Da Lesbian is introduced. She is the female vocalist in this album, but don’t let her feminine nature sidetrack you; she is audacious, alright. Unlike the unfortunately suicidal ai12die, she is found passionately spitting out bars that could most aptly be described as “bars, alright.” ai12die and Gina repeatedly switch shifts throughout the compilation, and we get a fair share of each personality – enough to psychologize both of them, anyway. It appears to me that both enjoy drinking and doing drugs an inordinate amount, but what would you say? I would say that they both need to go to rehab, pronto.
My standout tracks? Well, if I am to admit to having enjoyed an AI-generated song, that would have to be ai12die’s “Statement,” which combines a fast-paced synth-string arrangement with a thumping pop beat. As a matter of fact, this record is not so much hip-hop – jolly electropop is the predominant link here. Gina’s “Golden Retrievers” does that odd – if enjoyable – 2010s surf rock revival thing, and it is another highlight of this album. Penultimate track “Hoopty” is a little goofy (a term I deploy endearingly), and it is another tune I quite dig. It makes me feel like I’m in a washing machine, spinning with my head as it is being spun at an excruciating velocity.
Is it nice, for what it’s worth? Yes. Is it my cup of tea? It could be, that much is correct. I cannot exactly advocate for AI music from an ethical or artistic standpoint, but I have heard AI music that truly sucks, so I will give Mr. Charlie Luck his flowers for clearly knowing how to work his prompts to get specific results and for using discombobulatingly interesting literary devices to make his lyrics work for themselves. I respect the craftsmanship, yet the near-total absence of craftsmanship is something that really puts me off this record. My evaluation of it is hesitant for this exact reason, and you know what our motto is over at https://siliamusic.com; when in doubt, neutral route. Have fun I did, and amused I most certainly was. I am, however, in staggering doubt, so I cannot but go down the neutral route. Higgledy-piggledy, I slant to the golden mean. Only this is not quite “AI slop”; rather, it is well-concocted AI casserole. AI casserole is still AI casserole when all is said and done, but the grind cannot but be respected. A golden “5/10” mean is not cutting it; so what the hell, let’s do 7/10. 7/10. I sure do hope that ai12die gets the psychiatric help he so desperately needs, and I hope Gina never stops being a lesbian, because gay rights! Take it away, 67/95.
LISTEN:
https://on.soundcloud.com/Nhxy7zmkxA5uuOHJ6N
NOTES AND REFERENCES:
- siliamusic.com does not condone the use of Artificial Intelligence for artistic purposes of any sort. This artwork and album was AI-generated by the coordinator of the project that is being covered. ↩︎
Silia 
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