Our First Thoughts About AI....haha!

There’s a lot of noise right now about AI “making art.” And sure, AI can generate songs, images, videos, and entire productions faster than most of us can make coffee. But the thing I keep coming back to is this: art has never been only about the finished product. It’s about the human experience wrapped around it in the building, consuming and sharing.

I’ve heard AI used well inside productions. But the best examples almost always have one thing in common: a human is still driving. Editing. Choosing. Rejecting. Shaping and in my opinion Performing. The “magic” usually isn’t just the output but what a person does with it.

Personally, I can hear an AI vocal right away. And I find myself connecting to a human vocal because I can hear decisions. I can hear what the artist chose to emphasize, what they held back, what they meant to feel. Even the imperfections carry information. AI vocals often smear too many elements together. Like everything got blended into one smooth surface. It can sound impressive, but it doesn’t carry musical art ideas consistently. It’s like it knows how to imitate the texture of music without fully honoring the story that music is trying to tell.

That’s why I think experienced consumers, the ones who treat music like art, not just content are going to struggle with fully AI-generated music at the quality level that’s being delivered right now. Even from the best tools.

The Opportunity Is Real

At the same time, I don’t want to pretend AI is only a problem. It’s opened the door for more people to create. People who can’t sing, can’t play instruments, don’t have a studio, or don’t know how to produce can still take an idea and shape it into a song. That’s kind of beautiful and should be used by professional artists to know what people want to be listening to.

For a lot of people, making music is therapeutic. It’s a way to process life. AI can give someone an outlet they never had before. It takes their experience of humanity and helps translate it into something shareable.

Yes, that’s a threat to parts of the music industry as it operates today. But the industry and people have always evolved, and most people who actually love music are adaptable. The tools change but the heart behind art doesn’t.

Music has never been only about making something clever. It’s about connection , healing, challenge, and influence. That’s where AI still struggles unless a brilliant human or team of humans is steering it with intention and a lot of marketing knowledge. The product is just the tip of the iceberg within the art machine.

AI is still a tool. Is it a dangerous tool? Yes. Anything that can influence people at scale is dangerous if used carelessly. Used well, it can encourage and lift up a whole generation. Used wrong, it can manipulate, flatten culture, and replace depth with nonsense content and noise.

So here’s my encouragement, especially to local Canadian musicians:

Use AI as a tool to make your art better. Use it to explore, to demo, to brainstorm, to learn faster, to stretch your imagination. But don’t get lazy and let it steal your human creativity. Don’t let convenience replace craft. Don’t let speed replace meaning.

Be exciting. Be different. And most of all connect with your circle of influence. If you do that well enough, you can succeed, find support, and keep making more of what you love.

Because in the end, art isn’t just what we made.

It’s what it meant while we were making it and what it means when it reaches someone else.