Generative AI (2024)
AI & Code
Text turns into sound: neural networks (Suno, Udio) create tracks from descriptions, generating a stream of sound and shifting the boundaries of authorship — where is the line between the tool and the algorithm's participation?
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Generative neural networks create entire tracks with vocals and lyrics in seconds, restoring sound from noise based on massive datasets. Automation shifts the focus: instead of hands and technique, the point of attention is the idea; the human formulates the artistic task, and the algorithm realizes the concept.
But this is not a break with the past, but a new turn of an old line. Back in 1957, an algorithm on the ILLIAC I computer generated the "Illiac Suite" — the first fully computer-composed string quartet. The room-sized machine output notes according to the rules of counterpoint, creating unpredictable but fundamentally logically new music. The sound was peculiar, but it was the first case in history where a machine was entrusted with full creative control.