Music can thrive in the age of artificial intelligence

Birth ChatGPT brought a set of concerns about how large language models allow users to quickly override processes that once required human time, effort, passion, and understanding. In addition, the tech sector’s often tumultuous relationship with regulation and ethics oversight has many fearing a future in which artificial intelligence replaces humans in the workplace and stifles human creativity.

While much of this alarm is justified, we must also consider the possibility that human creativity will flourish in the new century. AI. In 2025, we will begin to see this manifest in our collective cultural response to technology. We’ll use hip-hop as an example to explore how culture and creativity can adapt to the age of artificial intelligence. It is one of the most profitable forms music has ever been invented and has already been influenced by major language models. We’ve all heard AI-driven rap songs by popular artists and seen them go viral, easily mistaken for authentic, genuine music. For example, during the recent rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, an AI-generated song called “One Shot” was released and mistakenly attributed to Lamar. In 2025, we should expect more AI-generated fake music, especially from the social media circus where the loudest and most provocative can attract the attention of millions.

In 2025, we believe creative engagement with artificial intelligence will begin to take three distinct forms.

The first can be described as “full surrender”: Don’t run away from technology, but trust that AI can generate terabytes of music in minutes. While this strategy involves outsourcing music production to robots, the human-based aspects of music culture will remain. For example, a human element resides in how artificial intelligence selects music (think successful DJs) and a new industry of art critics and commentators. It’s not unlike the TikTok influencers who are currently driving the widespread popularity of relics in art and technology. Discussing AI products with human guidance can be big business and will spawn a neo-influencer culture comparing and evaluating progress.

The second strategy will involve implicit adoption of artificial intelligence in art, where creativity becomes a healthy hybrid of human and machine. In the case of hip-hop, artists like 50 Cent have recently expressed their enjoyment of country music renditions of hip-hop classics with artificial intelligence (often done for humor). It’s a pattern we’ll continue to see: AI-powered re-imaginings or remixes of classic songs. Furthermore, we can observe the details of this pattern: the growth of the battle-rap scene, driven by artificial intelligence algorithms trained on datasets of human artists. Or it could even be a two-member rap duo: a rapper and their AI-trained sidekick (along with a mix of human and AI singers).

This kind of Robo-Franken-Hip-Hop leaves a lot of room for clever branding and can create whole new sub-genres of music. This would also have business implications: Artists could be rewarded based on training data, which could be an improvement over past and current hip-hop business models. The possibilities are only as limited as the infinite combination of human ingenuity and computing power.

Finally, 2025 will mark the official start of a great irony: artificial intelligence art will give a new appreciation to classic man-made relics. Highly prized human remains will become even more valuable as the volume of artefacts created by artificial intelligence will quickly surpass humans. For example, one of the messages that emerged from hip-hop’s 50th anniversary celebration was that society still lacked a common appreciation for the art form. Fewer than ten hip-hop artists or groups have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Also, very few of hip-hop’s creative acts are rich because they established the art form in a time when it was not financially profitable. Similar to how a retro-tech industry has emerged that celebrates the simple gadgets of yesterday, we will see a renewed appreciation for music from a similar era.

The rise of artificial intelligence and related technologies will shed new light on original music that predates its creation. This would require an appreciation of proto-hip-hop, which could be turned into a profitable industry around the preservation of original music, and an appreciation of the artists involved. Artificial intelligence can help hip-hop to its origins, finally giving it the respect it always deserves and its place among the high arts.

Human technology and art are two entities defined by their ability to surprise us. Yes, the relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence will be stormy in the near future, but 2025 will be a turning point where we will begin to embrace greater possibilities. Maybe there’s creative light at the end of the tech tunnel, where analog-era art forms like hip-hop can thrive in a land of big language models and whatever else the age of artificial intelligence will bring.