The birth of ChatGPT brings a host of worries about how large language models allow users to quickly disrupt processes that once required time, effort, passion, and human understanding. And what's more, the tech sector's often tumultuous relationship with regulation and ethical oversight has left many people fearful of a future where artificial intelligence replaces humans at work and hinders their ability to human creativity.
While much of this warning is well-founded, we should also consider the possibility that human creativity may flourish in modern times. artificial intelligence. In 2025, we will begin to see this expressed in our collective cultural response to technology. To consider how culture and creativity can adapt to the age of AI, we will use hip-hop as an example. It is one of the most lucrative forms music ever invented and has been influenced by major language models. We've all heard AI-driven rap songs by famous artists and seen them go viral, easily confused with authentic, original music. For example, during the recent rap dispute between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, an AI-generated song called “One Shot” was released and mistakenly attributed to Lamar. In 2025, we should expect a lot more AI-generated fake music, especially driven by the social media circus, where the loudest and most provocative can attract immediate attention of millions of people.
In 2025, we believe creative engagement with AI will begin to take three different forms.
The first can be described as “total surrender”: Don't run away from technology but rely on the fact that artificial intelligence can create terabytes of music in minutes, much of it as exciting as the music created by our favorite artists. While this strategy will include outsourcing music creation to robots, the human-driven aspects to musical culture will remain intact. For example, there is a human element in AI music curation (think successful DJs) and in a new industry of arts critics and commentators. This is no different from TikTok influencers, who are currently promoting the widespread popularity of relics in art and technology. Human-led discussion about AI products could be big business and will create an influential new culture to compare and evaluate this progress.
The second strategy will involve the indirect use of artificial intelligence in art, where creativity becomes a healthy combination of human and machine. In the case of hip-hop, artists like 50 Cent have recently expressed their interest in AI-powered renditions of classic country music hip-hop (usually created for comedy). funny). This is a pattern we will continue to see: the reinterpretation or remixing of classic songs with the help of AI. Furthermore, we can observe granular details about this pattern: the growth of the battle-rap scene is driven by AI algorithms trained on data sets of human artists. Or maybe even two-member rap duos: a rapper and their AI-trained partner (with the choruses also being a combination of human and AI singers).
This kind of Robo-Franken-Hip-Hop leaves a lot of room for intelligent interaction and can create entirely new musical genres. This would also make business sense: Artists could be compensated based on their training data, which could be an improvement over past hip-hop business models, and Present. The possibilities are limited only by the infinite combination of human ingenuity and computing power.
Finally, 2025 will mark the official beginning of a great irony: AI art will spur new appreciation for classical relics created by humans. Because the volume of AI creativity will quickly surpass that of humans in quantity, prized human relics will become more valuable. For example, one of the messages emerging from the 50th anniversary of hip-hop is that society still lacks a general appreciation for the art form. Fewer than a dozen hip-hop artists or groups have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Additionally, few of hip-hop's founding artists are wealthy, as they built the art form in an era when it was not financially lucrative. Similar to how the vintage tech industry appeared to celebrate the simple devices of yesterday, we will see a new appreciation for music from the analog era.
The rise of AI and related technologies will shed new light on original music that was created before its birth. This would require an appreciation for proto-hip-hop, which could translate into a lucrative industry around preserving original music and involving the valuation of artists. AI could aid the origins of hip-hop, finally giving it the respect it has always deserved and a place among the high arts.
Technology and human art are two institutions defined by their ability to surprise us. Yes, the relationship between creativity and AI will be a tumultuous one in the immediate future, but 2025 will be the time when we begin to grasp the greater possibilities. There may be creative light at the end of the technological tunnel, where modern art forms similar to hip-hop can thrive in the land of grand language paradigms and anything else. that the AI age will bring.