Thoughts on Nick Cave's Response to ChatGPT

“This is what we humble humans can offer, that AI can only mimic, the transcendent journey of the artist that forever grapples with his or her own shortcomings.” -Nick Cave, The Red Hand Files Issue #218.

While this post is well-written and provides great insight into the song-writing process, it betrays a slight misunderstanding of what this AI is. He is correct that this “AI” is not truly AI and is not intelligent. There is no… there… there.

But the output of it is interesting. Mimicry, sure, but this word is used here to needlessly cheapen it. I’d liken it more to a reflection. Not of any single artist, but of humanity filtered back through humanity’s understanding of that artist. An unfathomable amount of human creation synthesized through an algorithm to output a singular result. That is interesting.

Published 9 months ago