-In this beat that I produced, I used a few generative AI elements.

The first one that I used is called Beat Repeat.

Here's how it sounds without any effect or anything on it.

[music] -Then when I turn it on- [music] --it does just little things like that occasionally.

Another thing that I used was Google has this thing called MusicLM.

The text prompt for this was for calm flute, and this is what that sounds like.

Use those elements and added them.

[music] -Here's how all of it sounds together.

[music] -This machine-made song is part of a surge of new technology.

You may have seen some of these: ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E 2.

Many of these tools are marketed today as generative artificial intelligence or simply put AI, but when we outsource artistic decision-making to databases and computer models, what happens to culture and what can that mean for the future of hip-hop?

[music] -Artificial intelligence is basically the use of computing to mimic or model the kinds of tasks that human beings would engage in.

Everybody's engaging with AI if they have a smartphone or they have a computer, or even if they're just using basic workplace technologies.

-Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, more people have access to the tools of generative artificial intelligence.

These models analyze billions of data points to recreate speech, music, and visuals.

-So, generative AI is part of unsupervised learning.

That's what it comes under.

The thing about unsupervised learning is there are these things called input layers or what you ask the machine to do, pooling layers where the machine figures stuff out by itself, and then what it creates.

The machine is making its own decisions in terms of how it decides to continue learning.

That's the real issue.

-Micah is a UK-born computer scientist and entrepreneur who grew up with the grime scene.

[music] -During a 2019 MIT Hackathon, Micah got the idea to create a computer program that would help songwriters.

-There are real mental health issues in the artist community, in the music world.

I was signed to a record label and I experienced that firsthand.

I'd seen people who got into not the best mental spaces because they couldn't write or they couldn't produce, or they couldn't get their music they way they wanted it to be, and so I was like, "Is there a way to help some people that I know who are struggling to create at the level they want to, create at that level so they can support themselves?"

-Its first iteration, iRap, assisted artists by generating rhymes in real time that they could use for their songs.

-Attention combat fatigue, a team with a team with a roam.

Audio scene, here's Jerome.

Don't get it twisted, the empire's Rome.

-We asked Vritra to test out the software.

-I have a part of a verse.

I'm going to try that and then see- -Do that.

--what it gives- -That's a great idea.

--me from that.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 1, 2.

All right.

[music] -Digitization, spoken over composition, new arrangement, train model, brain model, engagement, exploration, and tale from trails and tribulation.

Influence rejection, projection, echoing statements, shifting phases.

All right, let me see what it gives me from there.

Implementation, wage it over your [crosstalk] -You got the arrangement, the arrangement for estrangements in places where they never even see the payment.

[music] -Validity in verby is from vista in view, flowing tasks from avenue in that perdition.

Next to noise from carrying...

I really do, like it is giving me stuff that I would say, which is crazy.

-Obviously, anyone can use a platform.

You can use it to learn to rap.

You can use it to just get into music, any form of music, not just rap, folk, pop, whatever.

It's really designed at the professional level to literally just be almost like a writing assistant, almost like a person to bounce ideas off of.

-I really like the way that it follows along with how the person's rapping and is able to suggest stuff that fits.

It's really helpful for suggesting prompts, suggesting topics that you could rap about, and training your brain to not think as much and to just flow with where you are.

-Brain rap is part of a larger wave of generative AI developed for the creative process of artists and cultural producers, but AI is not neutral.

It's a product of human creation and what comes with it is us, in all of our contradictions and complications, our systems of bias and oppression.

-One of the things that I think people don't understand about AI that we need to bring to the forefront is that data often gets depoliticized in the sense where people don't think about where that data comes from, what it means, whether there are histories of discrimination that are baked into that data, but that those data sets get often used to train AI.

-Some modern algorithms have been trained on the whole internet.

It's everything.

It's YouTube, it's Wikipedia.

It's okay, where did that data come from?

BrainRap is an algorithm that was trained on a bunch of artist's inputs when a user even allows the platform to record the data that they've used and the words that they've put into the platform, which some users don't.

By default, it actually doesn't record the data.

Yes, artificial intelligence can be harmful.

I think if we make it a tool as opposed to a black box, there's a much lower probability of it being harmful.

-As more and more of these technologies become available, they're changing the way we experience and make culture.

-I think it's interesting to think about this tension between artists and creators and everyday people and the companies and the platforms and the technologies that we have to use in order to engage in different kinds of creative human expression.

There's no doubt that Black artists in particular have been at the forefront of most technological advancements.

Yes, we can be creative, but we should never lose sight of the broader political economy of who's in power, who controls, who truly profits, so these are the tensions in this space right now.

-AI and machine learning come with deep implications, especially regarding the challenge of emphasizing humanity and justice.

Amid our increasing reliance on these technologies, how do we use these tools to make art in a meaningful and ethical way?

-AI will really impact music really negatively early on because people have a tendency to go overboard, but as we grow, as we see the failures and the successes of using full-level AI things, I think we'll settle back down into where it's just a commonplace tool like we use pencils, like we use computers.

-Thanks for watching Hip-Hop and the Metaverse.

What do you think about artists using generative AI to make new works of art?

How would you use these tools?

Let us know in the comments and make sure to like and subscribe to keep following us on this virtual journey.

-Digitization spoken over composition, new arrangement, train model, brain model engagement, exploration, and tales from trails and tribulation.