AI or human? Music fans don’t care, says the vengeful Sevenford frontman

The use of AI in music has created a divide among musicians, with some calling it a “disaster” and others embracing the technology with enthusiasm. For Avenged Sevenfold frontman Matt Sanders (aka M. Shadows), it's not a question of whether AI will be widely accepted in the music industry.

“Do I think people will care in 20 years if music is written by humans or robots? No, I don't,” he told Decrypt.

He dismissed fans who worked to “support the artists and buy records” in front of AI. “No, you're not,” he said. “All you care about is how you feel about something,” he adds, adding that if the listener doesn't know AI is involved in writing music, “you'll feel what people feel based on this algorithm.” It's the key.”

“We're not that complicated,” he said. And AI can figure out what makes us hit faster.

Sanders argued that using AI as a tool is more than just looking up words in a thesaurus or using Google, “if I'm looking at a word or trying to figure out a way to describe something.” As a songwriter, he says, “I'm using these types of things to use tools to craft my ideas, and these visuals of words on paper or music come to life.

AI, he says, represents a “deep tool” that can be trained on “data sets, maybe all the songs you've ever written, and they can do something like you.”

Either way, Sanders says, the Pandora's Box of AI is well and truly open. “It's not really a bubble,” he said. “Bubbles happen when things are too speculative.” In his view, AI is going to play a big role in areas like “the way we drive, the way we interact with the Internet, the way we interact with your phone.”

“There are many ways we can take this conversation,” he said. “Is he repeating your voice? Is he repeating your songs? Are you using it as a tool to write songs? Looking for chord changes? “

During an interview with the Decrypt gm podcast last year, Sanders suggested that fans could use AI trained on Avenged Sevenfold's songs to make their own records, “where people can create their own versions of our songs or I'd love to put my voice on whatever they think would be cool.”

In it, he was taking a look at Canadian electro-pop artist Grimes, who promised a 50% royalty split to fans who create a “successful AI-generated song” using her voice.

Others who have used AI include The Beatles, who used the technology to create John Lennon's soundtrack for their last song, “Now & Then,” and Guns N' Roses, who turned to AI to power their latest music video. , “The General”

But not all musicians are sanguine about AI's impact on their careers. Earlier this month, 200 musicians including Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Pearl Jam, Jon Bon Jovi and Zayn Malik signed an open letter calling for an end to “irresponsible” AI.

“This assault on human creativity must stop,” said the Artists' Rights Alliance letter. We need to defend against predatory AI to steal artists' voices and images, violate copyright and destroy the music ecosystem.

“Fighting” AI attacks is futile, Sanders argued. “One thing we've seen with the Internet, with streaming, with video games, with electric cars, with every piece of the Internet that's been created, we can't suppress it,” he said. “So you kind of have to look at him, like, where is this going? And how can I use it to my advantage? “

For now, human creativity still has the edge, though

“I still believe that an artist wants to take us somewhere we don't—for now—know,” Sanders says. “AI still hasn't done that. Maybe it will.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward.