AI Music, Not Like Us?

In November 2023, while scrolling on TikTok, a song was going viral, called "Nostalgia."It was a reggaeton song by Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, featuring Spanish artist Bad Gyal.The song got positive reviews and had listeners replaying it and wanting it on their playlists.Many people wanted Bad Bunny to release the song thinking it was simply an unreleased song.The comments read "I need this on Spotify right now," "Better than the whole new album," referring to the album he had released just a month before "Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va Pasar Maana."What people didn't know at the time, was that it wasn't Bad Bunny's song, it was made using artificial intelligence.Once people found out that it wasn't Bad Bunny's original song, many people were disappointed.When Bad Bunny found out this song was going viral and had positive reviews, he went on his WhatsApp fan channel stating, "If you guys like that shitty song that's viral on TikTok, get out of this group right now.You do not deserve to be my friends."He made it very clear that he didn't want people, especially his fans to be engaging with the song.Turns out this fake Bad Bunny song wasn't fully made by AI.A Chilean musician simply used AI for filtering Bad Bunny's voice over their own voice.The beats and lyrics are still made by a human.This made me realize, sooner or later people will be enjoying AI music more, whether used as a tool or completely made by AI, and not even realize it.At the start of this year, the first AI-assited song, "Now and Then," by The Beatles won a grammy.A grammy category or any award may soon be given to more music made using AI.Trying to stop or ignore AI is too late, rather the conversations to be made is how are we as humans going to embrace the tool properly.Will AI completely replace musicians?Is the meaning of music removed with AI?The question of how technology will change music isn't new.The invention of the electric guitar, drum machines, synthesizers, etc. all of these have questioned the future of music throughout the years and now it's used in many of the greatest songs we know.The goal for this story is to understand what are the implications for music makers and what are artists and fans going to do about this.I explore how AI is currently being used in the Bay Area and share my findings with a rapper who is hesitant in using AI in his own music creation.Can he be convinced?For the meantime, one thing is for certain, the future of music making with new tools, including AI lies in the hands of artists.