AI? Sure looks like it and frighteningly good.

[Cunamara]

Listening to that track posted,it sounds better than 90 percent of the latest smooth jazz i have heard.Gobuz has AI generated music already on it's website.No matter what your livelihood is,AI is going to threaten your job.Don't worry though,Elon Musk says you can sit home and get a universal basic income and enjoy yourself as long as you don't mind living at the poverty level.All i can say is that i am glad i grew up when i did.

All your base are belong to us.

[AllanAllen]

When DJs playing records in clubs started drawing more people than live music did and became music celebrities in their own right, I knew the end pretty well nigh for live musicians.

The thoughts of the chronically online. I’ve got 22 gigs booked through October and I’m nobody with barely functional jazz skill. Playing 60 miles outside of Chicago.

[wolflen]

Hmm..Orwell revisited..

Fake is Real

Growing up I was a Pro Wrestling fan..I wanted to believe it was real..

The Good Guy vs The Bad Guy

Very basic conflict..in time I found out I could enjoy it as much--real or not.

Politics is a bit like that..you know they lie..but its fun to watch--The Good Guy vs The Bad Guy

If gas is costing more..blame the Bad Guy.

Who cares if Jessica is real or not--Really.

Remember Jessica Rabbit? Some guys didnt care if she was real or not. Yeah..I know its sad to say..but true.

[PMB]

Although it was published 15 years ago, I recommend this book to anyone interested in how we deal with A.I. and what it says about being human:

The Most Human Human | Brian Christian

The author, Brian Christian researched and decided to study for an annual worldwide Turing Test competition. He won the prize and his description of everything leading to the final event is definitely worth a read. More importantly, his reflection on the process raised questions about the poverty of our discourse and lack of imagination in our use of language.

Similarly, most smooth jazz seeks to expunge the unpredictable and work within strict market-defined parameters. If we follow Pat Metheny's line of thought that jazz is a verb rather than a noun, it barely fits the bill. Is it really a surprise that we can hardly tell the difference between A.I. and real smooth jazz?

[MiniMerckx.22]

Not trying to speak off color here but in all seriousness wouldn't that kind of image generate more $$ in fantasy/porn world rather than jazz guitar? Really just not interested.

[Mick-7]

Not trying to speak off color here but in all seriousness wouldn't that kind of image generate more $$ in fantasy/porn world rather than jazz guitar? Really just not interested.

Yes but "fantasy/porn world" is an apt description of the internet milieu now-a-days.

[starjasmine]

Not trying to speak off color here but in all seriousness wouldn't that kind of image generate more $$ in fantasy/porn world rather than jazz guitar? Really just not interested.

Diana Krall is a musician's musician, but a fair number of her album covers are somewhat suggestive. Sadly, it is a fact that image is part of the package that sells an artist (or, more to the point, sells their disc) to the public.

[yebdox]

Not trying to speak off color here but in all seriousness wouldn't that kind of image generate more $$ in fantasy/porn world rather than jazz guitar? Really just not interested.

I think they can manage both at once.

There IS the lucrative AI dating market that targets poor, unattractive young jazz guitarists, I'm sure. For $49 /month, you could have the hottest long distance girlfriend who can kick your ass on guitar, and calm you to sleep, whispering sweet nothings into your earbuds at night.

I can imagine in my younger years, it would have been a conflicting fantasy to have a supermodel girlfriend who could actually play better than me.... break up? Take lessons from her? Become a "kept" man? Never had the opportunity, thankfully

[mr. beaumont]

Funny that it's smooth jazz...what an interesting history that music has...starting as groove oriented sides on CTI with literally some of the the best musicians on the planet in the 70s only to become a watered down instrumental adult contemporary music 10 to 15 years later...by the early 90s whole albums could be made with a few tracks of harmonized sax over a "band" that was generated on a Korg workstation.

Pioneers, really, the smooth jazzers of the 90s...fully predicted this 30 years ago.

[wolflen]

Funny that it's smooth jazz...what an interesting history that music has...starting as groove oriented sides on CTI with literally some of the the best musicians on the planet in the 70s only to become a watered down instrumental adult contemporary music 10 to 15 years later...by the early 90s whole albums could be made with a few tracks of harmonized sax over a "band" that was generated on a Korg workstation.

Pioneers, really, the smooth jazzers of the 90s...fully predicted this 30 years ago.

Remember it .. all too well..

Creed Taylor had a stable of studio musicians..Benson being one..at the same time "water downed" rock became POP with
Fleetwood Mac and Rumours leading the way.

And it flourished-soft quiet "jazz" now had its own FM radio station networks TheWave being one that was on most
major city FM menus and most tunes had some Wes and Benson flavored licks on them. The DJs had slow soft voices to tell you
the name of the tunes and the albums they were on and if they were going to be playing in a city near you.

And for those that find "soft jazz" not soft enough..there are actual ambient bands that not only
lull you to sleep..but keep you there. Highly advised not to walk, run.drive or make promises to anyone while listening.

And of course you can find ambient style guitar lessons on youtube and other formats. Do try to stay awake during the lessons,

[djg]

at first i thought it was just regular suno slop. then i thought the guitar sounded quite ok and might actually be real. then i isolated the guitar and it did sound like midi. so i did what i usually do in those cases. i tried to replicate the result. this first attempt at creating jazz guitar ai slop took just ten minutes. quite scary tbh.

ai slop.mp3

[Alter]

Many times projects like that are not completely AI, but musicians like the ones doing thousands of profiles on order for companies like Spotify etc. They curate the music with AI, then use AI to market the whole thing. Then again, i don't really follow AI developments, so maybe you can go to Suno, do an input similar to the bio here and get that kind of music. If not today, in the very imminent future for sure.

I know for a fact that you can have Suno operate as a recording studio and session musicians with a monthly sub. You input and idea or any instrument and it will arrange, record, mix, play parts etc, which you can edit after.

[AndyV]

AI is dangerous and moving faster than society or even its creators realize. It can suck out our souls while making us stupider. Its legitimate capabilities to aid humanity are lost in a sea of crap like this pseudo Benson crap. Spend your time with all the beauty that real humans create, even Sugar Sugar by the Archies beats this artificial world. All just MHO.

[frabarmus]

Came across her this morning for the first time and immediately thought: "this is AI" (which is getting better at imitating, still not my cup of tea though...).

[Ascend to Victory]

In the comments she claims she's going to upload live videos of her band when she gets 10,000 subscribers. Hopefully the AI is good enough to generate convincing video by then!

[Mick-7]

Such an odd and in fact downright silly fake bio: an Aussie expatriating to an island in communist china, etc. Initially I was thinking "Ibanez advertising rep marketing ploy" but they are based in Japan and China would be the last place they'd have their virtual fantasy gal physically reside.

[starjasmine]

In the comments she claims she's going to upload live videos of her band when she gets 10,000 subscribers. Hopefully the AI is good enough to generate convincing video by then!

It'll probably look something like this:

[DawgBone]

One would hope.

It's definitely a part of whatever future we have, whether we like it or not. Until I found this, I thought it was easy to discern the difference, but whatever programming they have developed, along with sampling is definitely picking up on string and picking dynamics, timing, etc. It's not Peter Bernstein or Jesse Van Ruller, but Benson's influence is everywhere and some of his stuff is adaptable to this kind of output.

As someone pointed out, the vocals, impressive as they are, do have an auto-tune quality to them that is a bit of a giveaway. Although I recall a good buddy who has had a successful career in jingle writing and production emphatically stating that Jacob Collier (when he first showed up) MUST have been using auto-tune. (I think he's denied it all along, and seems to have the live evidence to prove it.)

This whole encounter mostly took me by surprise, I think, because a lot of my favorite players are impressive to me because of their touch, inflection and taste, not because of their massive chops.... I can think of a lot of blues players and perhaps less sophisticated jazz players who would fit that description. Others I admire ARE blessed with taste AND harmonic sophistication: Scofield, Bernstein, Van Ruller, Henderson, Holdsworth, Wayne Krantz, Wes (of course), Robben Ford (when he wants to).....but, others might be at risk of digital approximation without that extra level of musical ability.

For me, that pushes me in the direction of really analyzing what exactly, besides touch and expression, gets me excited and wanting to grow into in my playing. Not for fear of duplication, (I'm nobody) but maybe because distilling out what elements in a solo really move me, now becomes even more important than simple tone and expression.

Just thinking out loud, here. Maybe it lands differently for you.

Man....this was an outstanding post and pretty well sums up my thoughts better than I could. As you said "might be at risk of digital approximation without that extra level of musical ability". I think that's gonna ring true because A.I can copy and mimic but cannot truly create on it's own. A good player has a level of unpredictability to what they do. A computer cannot copy real improv. I have heard a few A.I blues tunes and well, a non-living thing cannot do well what is based 100% from the human experience so to my ears it sounds like a facsimile though I would add that much organic "blues" now is a sort of facsimile of the real thing. Not sure how that will play out in the end.

Sorry if I came in too hot in my earlier posts, I just have a high level of distaste for anything that replaces excellence with convenience. I see most of the digital movement in that light.

[starjasmine]

You beat me to this, Dawg. I've been meaning to respond to yebdox's call to "really analyz[e] what exactly, besides touch and expression, gets me excited and wanting to grow into in my playing."

For me, seeing masterful live performance is a huge inspiration. If someone played an impossible lick after 1000 takes or other studio trickery, I can appreciate that they did, in fact, play the lick, even if it was only once. But seeing a musician play at a high level in real time is a special experience. I can't explain why, exactly. Part of it is "if he can do it, then it's possible for me to do it." Part of it is seeing how he or she plays something, it its infinite variations, in real time. Part of it is experiencing that real-time musical conversation on the bandstand as it is happening. (edit: I know I'll never play keys like Chick and that it's highly unlikely that I'll ever play guitar as well as Matteo, or JK, or Pat Martino... the list goes on! ... but there's a thrill in experiencing that music too. Just hearing it is great, whether I'll ever cop any of their technique or not. Fingerboard athleticism in and of itself is not necessarily a thrill for me. I'm a harmony freak. I love Debussy, Ravel, Brahms, etc, in addition to all my jazz guitar heroes.)

I don't get the same thing out of hearing a well-produced MIDI sequence. I don't get the same thing out of spectator sports, although much of what I like about live music is probably what sports fans love about being at a ballgame.

I definitely don't get any sort of thrill out of seeing a machine do something better than a human can do it. I love having a car, but I'm not remotely interested in trying to run as fast as my car can drive.

I have no doubt that the day will come when humanoid robots can play sports or play in a robot band on stage... perhaps playing better than humans can, and maybe looking so realistic that it would be difficult to distinguish them from humans. Maybe when that actually manifests, there will be something about it that is interesting to me. But I'm not really expecting that the AI-driven, humanoid-form musicians or bands will capture my interest in the same way that human players do.

That said, the AI-generated Benson covers that are the subject of this thread are indeed very listenable. I hate to admit that, but it's true. The masquerading as a human, faking images of jamming with GB in the living room, and promises of "live" video are a huge turnoff tho. For me, those lies overshadow everything else about this that is positive.

[DawgBone]

You beat me to this, Dawg. I've been meaning to respond to yebdox's call to "really analyz[e] what exactly, besides touch and expression, gets me excited and wanting to grow into in my playing."

For me, seeing masterful live performance is a huge inspiration. If someone played an impossible lick after 1000 takes or other studio trickery, I can appreciate that they did, in fact, play the lick, even if it was only once. But seeing a musician play at a high level in real time is a special experience. I can't explain why, exactly. Part of it is "if he can do it, then it's possible for me to do it." Part of it is seeing how he or she plays something, it its infinite variations, in real time. Part of it is experiencing that real-time musical conversation on the bandstand as it is happening.

To someone very knowledgeable about high level jazz and blues bands and improv I don't think A.I will ever fully suffice for seeing a band in real time. To someone who is already a bro-country appreciator I don't think the A.I factor will matter. As usual the lowest common denominator will win out, at least, for a time. But can it innovate? I don't think so. At best it seems like it functions as an approximation machine for feeling and improv, but will never have any feeling or improv of it's own, and all that it uses to approximate is actually a straight rip off from thousands, millions, of sources. Like a great player who is a music sponge, but never sounds like themselves. I would guess such is exactly the case of the OP video.

[nbs2005]

I spent a bit of time going back and forth between the AI Brezzin' and GB's live take from 1977 that's also on YT. First, lets be honest, there's not much special about this tune. No disrespect to GB but it's pretty much ear candy. Having said that, GB and the band make the most of it and there's a energy you can hear in the live take vs AI.

I have know idea what this all means. My guess is OK music will sound OK with AI and a little bit better played live by people. If you like OK music, that's great.

As a note I recently saw Diana Krall in Hamilton ON. The trio played mostly standards, one of her and EC's originals, and a couple of great covers of a Neil Young tune (mr. soul) and Joni Mitchell (case of you). It was more than OK; I thought it is was fantastic. Not sure AI would of done half as well (but that is speculation on my part).

Last week I went to a live Kitchen Party jam with friends. I played Dobro on a bunch of simple tunes. It was more fun than any recent musical outing including the Krall show. Go figure.

[Cunamara]

AI is dangerous and moving faster than society or even its creators realize. It can suck out our souls while making us stupider. Its legitimate capabilities to aid humanity are lost in a sea of crap like this pseudo Benson crap.

There is a reason for that. Aiding humanity is a money loser and a lot of work. Selling bullshit and crap is highly profitable. AI companies can make way more off of enabling people to make fake porn.

[WilliamScott]

I've been meaning to respond to yebdox's call to "really analyz[e] what exactly, besides touch and expression, gets me excited and wanting to grow into in my playing.".

Once you do that, turn it into a prompt to AI and you just might hear it. The future of music education, especially music business education, will be to be able to develop the best prompts to feed the AI "music" generator. This is not unlike the old idea of connecting your brain directly to a synth instrument like David Rosenboom has been trying to do for 50+ years, except it is more realistic to do it via plain old native language.

BTW, sometimes I get the shivers when listening to Diana Krall. I'd like to have AI do that but don't know how to ask for it.

[starjasmine]

I think you (and Cunamara earlier in the thread) are right: AI will enable an end-run around having to rely on "those pesky musicians" for any sort of commercial music. Let's face it, the entire pop music biz is highly derivative already. It's a major label's wet dream to be able to crank out songs that are similar to existing hits without having to spend money on musicians, engineers, producers, promoters, etc.

I think the answer to your prompting question is to prompt with audio examples, not text descriptions of audio. And that whoever did the Jessica Sinclair covers has already done just that. They can now generate a "smooth jazz style" version of any song. Why they're fixated on the Benson back catalog is a bit of a mystery....

As for controlling a synth via brainwave interface, this story from the WSJ about a paralyzed man who controlled a robotic arm to raise a beer to his lips is over 10 years old, so perhaps we'll get there soon:

[starjasmine]

As I recall, Peter has a pretty hot looking wife.... maybe that's her

Peter Farrell can't possibly be involved because "Jessica" is not charging $1000 per view.