Why This Rapper Thinks AI Will Benefit Music Creatives

Published: December 9, 2024

Why This Rapper Thinks AI Will Benefit Music Creatives

By Movieguide® Contributor

Rapper will.i.am shared his predictions for how AI will be used in the music industry and why music creatives have the least to worry about.

“The people that are at risk of AI in the music [industry] are managers, label execs, finance auditors, attorneys,” will.i.am told Fox News Digital. “If you look at the money that’s being put [in]to make these systems more advanced, Microsoft is giving you a Copilot. And there’s nothing slowing down how freaking awesome that’s going to be in 2025 version eight. And that’s going to be used for all types of industries.”

“There’s not an army or a fleet of AI music do[ing] everything to the level of copilots or sales force agents. So musicians and hyper-creatives are okay. We’re going to use AI and reinvent and create a whole new industry because of it.”

Will.i.am believes that the only musicians in the industry who need to worry are those who are focusing on algorithms and going viral rather than creating unique and innovative work for the love of music.

He said, “If that’s your whole [hustle], then AI is going to do a better job than that.”

“Right now, AI does a good job of everything that we’ve created and can mimic it. But AI is not making things that don’t exist exist,” he continued. “We do that. We created AI. So AI is a mirror. It shows you exactly what’s in front of it.”

But the tech’s ability to mirror and mimic concerns some.

“…while AI offers creative possibilities, its misuse has triggered fierce resistance. Generative AI models trained on copyrighted songs can replicate specific voices, tones, and styles with unsettling accuracy, raising questions about authenticity and ownership,” Forbes said.

Earlier this year, “Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Records filed lawsuits against Suno and Udio, accusing these AI startups of using copyrighted tracks to train their models without authorization,” the outlet continued.

“These are straightforward cases of copyright infringement involving unlicensed copying of sound recordings on a massive scale,” RIAA chief legal officer, Ken Doroshow, said in a statement. “Suno and Udio are attempting to hide the full scope of their infringement rather than putting their services on a sound and lawful footing.”

AI and an interest in tech have been part of will.i.am’s music career since the beginning.

“‘I’m a musician because of the computer,’ he said, describing coding and computer science as his early career aspirations, and talking about the intersection of tech and music,” Forbes reported.

The rapper also believes that AI will be an invaluable tool for artists once they embrace it, helping them in the creative process and allowing them to quickly fine-tune ideas. To highlight the value of the tech, he is creating a series, CONVOS, that shows how AI chatbots can aid in the creation process without taking the life out of the final product. During each episode of his series, an artist talks with an AI chatbot to smooth out a song idea before ending the episode with a little jam of that song.

“A lot is happening when you’re talking to yourself. But this is like a different version of that,” will.i.am said. “You’re not talking to yourself, but you’re talking to some type of chalkboard or banter board or mirror that’s able to give you real time reflection without having to be weird speaking out loud.”