"I made this (sort of)": Negotiating authorship, confronting fraudulence, and exploring new musical spaces with prompt-based AI music generation

TL;DR

This paper explores the creative process and philosophical questions surrounding AI-generated music through the author's two albums, examining authorship, authenticity, and new musical possibilities enabled by prompt-based AI tools.

Contribution

It introduces a reflective methodology using large language models to interrogate artistic authorship and identity in AI-assisted music creation, highlighting new artistic and conceptual spaces.

Findings

AI prompts challenge traditional notions of musical authorship.

LLM-mediated self-reflection reveals evolving musical identity.

AI-generated music exposes limitations and potentials of current platforms.

Abstract

I reflect on my experience creating two music albums centered on state-of-the-art prompt-based AI music generation platforms. The first album explicitly poses the question: What happens when I collide my junk mail with these platforms? The second album is a direct response to the first, and toys with the inability of state-of-the-art prompt-based AI music generation platforms to generate music that is not ``practiced'', ``polished'', and ``produced''. I seed a large language model (LLM) with information about these albums and have it interview me, which results in the exploration of several deeper questions: To what extent am I the author? Where am I in the resulting music? How is my musical identity changing as I am faced with machines that are in some ways far more talented than I? What new musical spaces does my work open, for me or anyone/thing else? I conclude by reflecting on my reflections, as well as LLM-mediated self-reflection as method.