Strangers in the Mesh

Both of these music videos, Strangers in the Mesh and Behind the Screen, were completely created by neural network.


I have been publishing content generated by neural networks for over a year, and during this time I have involuntarily managed to collect a huge amount of feedback. Today, AI-content is present in all social networks, and communities of interested people have managed to form in most of them. It is all the more surprising to encounter rejection of such content, sometimes reaching the level of AI-phobia.

I think, despite all the hackneyed and overused, the word "phobia" in this case is ideal, because AI-denial is based on fear. Not a conscious fear of something specific and formed, but a fear of change as such. As a person who lived through the collapse of several state regimes (let me not specify), I understand these feelings completely. However, this does not add a drop of logic to the fear of AI-generated content, because everything bad that could happen to "real human creativity" happened a long time ago - not in our day and not even in our century.

Photography. Today it is considered absolutely conventional human content, isn't it? Especially against the background of AI-pictures that are created in one click. But is a photo created any differently? It is the same click (okay, more often it is not a click, but a tap), it just happens in a different application. Just in a different app, you understand? Close "I Am Cool Artist" app, activate "I Am Cool Photographer" app, point the camera at the object, poke your finger in the right place - voila, your creative act has taken place, you can publish photo, collecting well-deserved likes for "real user-generated content". Oh, what is this, it turns out that you did not close the first app, but only minimized it, and your tap on the screen accidentally caused the generation of a new picture? Oh nooo, this is not a real picture, it is artificial. Unlike the photo, yeah.

I hope that I did not offend anyone with this "mental sketch", I just wanted to demonstrate the entire conventionality of the modern understanding of what is "human-made" and what is not.

Once upon a time, drawing portraits or just "pictures for interior decoration" was a very popular business, and today it is a thing of the past, but painting as a high art will remain with humanity forever. Of course, this activity will no longer be widespread. Instead of painting, photography has become widespread, it has intercepted this initiative and will not give it up. The creation of AI-images only complements this picture. You can lament that humanity no longer needs a million real living artists, but I will repeat once again: this process was not started by neural networks. A lot of different professions, both creative and not so creative, suffered in a similar way, starting with coachmen, millers, stonemasons - no, I doubt I'll be able to get to the very source of this story. It began too long ago. Not today, not yesterday, not in this century and not in this millennium. The main thing is that this story does not end, because this, unlike the biographies of kings, unlike the chronologies of wars, is the real history of humanity called progress.

Try to imagine how many millions of years of evolution it took for people to learn to knock on stones with sticks and blow an empty horn. And now neural networks do all this for us, in a matter of seconds. It’s even a little offensive for our ancestors, isn’t it?

And here, before you is another pair of tracks born not by inspiration, but by algorithms and server power. Perhaps no one sang these melodies, picked up a guitar or worried about the rhyme, but these tracks are unique in their own way. They are born from numbers, like a phoenix from the ashes, not knowing what awaits in the future. Even artificial intelligence can't predict what the end result will be. These are not remakes or covers, this is something new and very interesting.

But let's be honest: sometimes artificial intelligence surprises. At some moments, the compositions sound as if they would be perfect for android dancing or for a scene from space odyssey. Or maybe these songs will become your personal soundtracks for walks around the metropolis of the future. Just imagine: flying taxis are buzzing around, people with chips instead of passports, and these melodies are playing in your headphones.

So, relax, enjoy the sounds, and don't forget that maybe someday all our playlists will be completely created by neural networks. And we will nostalgically remember the times when music had "soul". Although, who knows? Maybe in the future it will be possible to generate a soul too? Well, turn on playback, and let algorithms work for you.



Sources
My YouTube channel
Music and lyrics - Suno
Graphics - Dreamlike