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The New ‘Ethical’ AI Music Generator Can’t Write a Halfway Decent Song
Song generators are in hot water over alleged copyright infringement, but the AI tool Jen was trained on licensed material. We asked pro musicians to test it. The results: 🫠
To dig deeper, WIRED asked five professional musicians to test Jen’s skills: John Heywood, a bassist who’s best known for backing indie rock act Alex G; Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes’ Jenn Wasner; Shana Cleveland, founder of surf-noir act La Luz; Steve Reidell, of The Hood Internet and Air Credits; and Allen Blickle, a two-time Emmy-nominated composer and sound designer who has worked on projects for Netflix, Disney, and Apple Music, among others. “A lot of musicians or producers, when they ask something of each other, they’ll use bands and other artists as a reference point, like, ‘We’re going to go for a Prince type of sound,’ or, ‘Let’s add some Clavinet like Stevie Wonder,’” Heywood explains. Apps like Jen don’t yet give creators the ability to set crescendo points or add stingers to their tracks, which would make them ready-made for scoring, but one can only expect that it’s on the horizon.
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