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Virtuosity with Artificial Intelligence (AI): Explorations and Challenges in Music, Performance and Higher Education: Ethics, Advocacy, & Critical Evaluation

Ethical Concerns

Who owns the rights to AI-generated music? When an AI system creates or contributes to a musical piece, it's unclear whether the copyright belongs to the AI developers, the users of the AI tool, or if it should be considered public domain. This ambiguity can lead to legal disputes and challenges in fairly compensating human creators.

There are concerns that AI could replace human musicians, producers, and other creative professionals in the music industry. As AI becomes more capable of generating music, mixing tracks, and even replicating artists' voices, it may lead to job losses and devalue human creativity.

The use of AI in music creation raises questions about the authenticity of the art form. Some argue that AI-generated music lacks the emotional depth and personal expression that human-created music possesses. There's also concern about maintaining the integrity of an artist's work if AI can easily replicate their style or voice.

AI systems are trained on existing data, which can perpetuate biases present in that data. This could lead to a lack of diversity in AI-generated music or reinforce stereotypes in musical styles and genres.

The development of AI music systems often requires large datasets of existing music. This raises questions about the ethical use of copyrighted material for training AI models and the potential infringement of artists' rights.

As AI becomes more prevalent in music creation, there are concerns about how to fairly compensate human artists and ensure they receive proper credit for their contributions.

There's a worry that AI-generated music could lead to a loss of the authentic connection between artists and fans. The personal stories and experiences that often inspire human-created music might be missing from AI-generated content.

With AI capable of producing vast amounts of music quickly, there's a risk of market oversaturation and a potential decline in overall music quality.

Ethical use of voice replication: AI technology can now replicate artists' voices, raising concerns about consent and the potential misuse of this capability.

The environmental concerns about AI primarily revolve around the energy consumption and resource use associated with developing and operating AI systems.

Advocacy & Critical Evaluation

Advocacy groups and movements related to artificial intelligence focus on ensuring the ethical, fair, and beneficial use of AI technologies. These groups address various issues, including bias, privacy, transparency, and the societal impacts of AI. Below are some prominent organizations and initiatives in this area:

When it comes to evaluating AI tools and resources, there are several models, websites, and frameworks designed to help users critically assess their reliability, functionality, ethical considerations, and overall impact. Here are some of the key resources and evaluation models available:

An AI-generated image

"The intersection of AI and a music and performing arts education" by Stacey Snyder generated by Perplexity.ai with Playground

More Berklee College & Boston Conservatory AI Resources (may require Berklee login)

AI Tools Used to Generate and Organize the Content on this Guide

  • Descriptions, images, research, and citations supported with Perplexity.ai
  • Citations formatted using Scribbr
  • Organization and summaries using ChatGPT
  • Images generated with Playground