Sting slams AI’s songwriting abilities
Sting has weighed in on the debate over utilising artificial intelligence in the songwriting process, saying the machines lack the “soul” needed to create music.
The former Police frontman spoke with Music Week and was asked if he believed computers are capable of creating good songs.
Sting responded that knowing a song was created by AI takes away some of the magic of the music.
“The analogy for me is watching a movie with CGI,” he said.
“I tend to be bored very quickly, because I know the actors can’t see the monster. So I really feel the same way about AI being able to compose songs.”
“Basically, it’s an algorithm and it has a massive amount of information, but it would lack just that human spark, that imperfection, if you like, that makes it unique to any artist, so I don’t really fear it.”
“A lot of music could be created by AI quite efficiently,” he added.
“I think electronic dance music can still be very effective without involving humans at all. But songwriting is very personal. It’s soul work, and machines don’t have souls. Not yet anyway.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Sting weighed in on Ed Sheeran’s recent high profile copyright case, in which he was being sued over his 2014 single Thinking Out Loud by Structured Asset Sales, who claimed that Sheeran's hit took elements directly from Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On.
The court and the jury ended up siding with Sheeran, saying they did not plagiarise the song.
Sting shared his comments on the case, also siding with Sheeran by saying, “No one can claim a set of chords.”
“No one can say, ‘Oh that’s my set of chords.’ I think [Sheeran] said, ‘Look songs fit over each other.’ They do, so I think all of this stuff is nonsense and it’s hard for a jury to understand, that’s the problem.”
“So that was the truth, musicians steal from each other – we always have. I don’t know who can claim to own a rhythm or a set of chords at all, it’s virtually impossible.”
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