I can appreciate (and even enjoy) some AI songs, but I just can't get the same emotional connection to them as I do from art created by humans.

My favorite music producers all have creative ways of making their music sound more "human". You might not even realize it's there, but you can feel the difference without it.

For example:

1. Many hip-hop artists find beats made in software like Ableton or FL Studio to be too "stiff". When all of the snares or kicks are perfectly on beat, it feels robotic. Producers will intentionally make things slightly off-beat (e.g. physically playing drum pads where there is some room for human error) so the beat has more "swing".

2. We've had digital music for decades, and yet producers will still add in the crackling sound effect of a record player needle hitting the vinyl. If you really listen, you'll hear this in the back of tons of R&B and acoustic songs.

3. Even for electronic music, producers will take the raw computer generated noises and add tons of artificial distortion to make them have more "texture". Some will even take a voice note on their phone of a loud thud noise, and then tweak the EQ and filters to make that be the kick drum, instead of using a fully digital sound.

4. When you are recording real instruments, like putting a microphone up to a guitar, you can also capture other sounds in the room. You'll notice on older records there are often mistakes or strange sounds captured in the recording that they end up keeping in. Ironically these have ended up being some of the most iconic parts of songs.

For example, in the song "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", the iconic whistling that Otis Redding does at the end was supposed to be a placeholder for an outro, but he unfortunately died in a plane crash days after recording it. The whistling was my favorite part before I even knew that anecdote.

This same thing applies to most art, like images or movies. Think about why Christopher Nolan records all of his movies on film with these massive, expensive, difficult to use IMAX cameras. He truly believes the audience can feel the difference and goes to great lengths to preserve that artistry.

So, can a robot write a symphony? Yes. Is it the same as what human artists can do? No. We may train AI on all of these patterns. AI might come up with new types of art we haven't thought of before! But humans will continue to have an ingenuity and creativity that is unique.

I will enjoy the slopcore AI songs about eating KFC chicken and also continue to be an avid concert goer and movie enjoyer.