Navigating Music in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

I love writing songs, both for myself and in genres that differ from my own style. For the Super Bowl, as a fun songwriting exercise, I wrote a Taylor Swift-inspired song about her relationship with Travis Kelce and shared a snippet on social media. The response was unexpected. Some listeners understood it was “me-e-e,” Annabel Gutherz, while others thought I was Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, or, most intriguingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI has emerged as an increasingly powerful, pervasive, and transformative tool in nearly every industry and professional vertical, and music is no exception. In music, AI has the ability to identify patterns across genres, analyze paradigms and sounds, and generate unique compositions, replicating the vocal tones and timbres of artists across categories to create original music. Although I had spent time honing my craft, examining Taylor Swift’s lyrical and melodic structures, and recording this short piece of music to share, several listeners couldn’t differentiate between what was real and what, if anything, was artificially manufactured. Given the time, effort, and “organic” work I put in to create this song section, it was an unsettling experience for me to be likened to software, and that prompted much reflection.

I had never considered the difficulty listeners may face discerning between AI and real musicianship until this striking occurrence. After a momentary existential crisis where, much like Barbie, I questioned “What was I made for?” I thought: Is there a way artists can use AI to their creative benefit without losing their sense of artistry and expression? The rise of this new form of technology and its ubiquitous nature are unprecedented, but I would hope that indeed, there is a way! There is always a way! I think AI can certainly help expedite and elevate the creative process vis-à-vis quick harmony, melody, and lyric ideas, but in no way replace the intrinsic and learned human experience of creating and sharing original music. How listeners will be able to decipher what’s AI and what’s not may be an answer that eventually presents itself, but until then, those listening to my music can be rest assured it is strictly AG.

Annabel Gutherz is a singer-songwriter based in Montreal

Website: annabelgutherz.com