Music can flourish in the age of artificial intelligence

birth ChatGPT It has brought a host of concerns about the extent to which large language models allow users to subvert processes that previously required human time, effort, emotion, and understanding. Furthermore, the tech sector’s often tense relationship with regulation and ethical oversight has left many fearful of a future in which AI replaces humans at work and stifles human creativity.

While much of this alarm is justified, we must also take into account the potential for human creativity to flourish in our time Amnesty International. In 2025, we will begin to see this manifest in our collective cultural response to technology. To examine how culture and creativity are adapting to the age of artificial intelligence, we will use hip-hop music as an example. It is one of the most profitable forms music has ever been invented, and has already been influenced by large language models. We’ve all heard and seen AI-powered rap songs by popular artists go viral, and they can easily be mistaken for authentic, authentic music. For example, during the recent rap feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, an AI-generated song called “One Shot” was released and incorrectly attributed to Lamar. In 2025, we should expect more AI-generated fake music, especially fueled by a social media circus, where the loudest, most provocative sound can instantly grab the attention of millions.

In 2025, we believe creative engagement with AI will begin to take three different forms.

The first can be described as “full surrender”: don’t run away from technology, but embrace the fact that AI can create terabytes of music in minutes, much of it as enjoyable as the music played by our favorite artists. While this strategy will include leaving the music industry to robots, the human-driven aspects of music culture will remain. For example, one of the human elements lies in how AI music is curated (such as by successful DJs), and in a new industry of arts critics and commentators. This is no different from TikTok influencers who are currently driving the widespread popularity of influences in the arts and technology. Human-led discussion of AI products could be big business, and will give rise to a new influential culture that compares and evaluates this progress.

The second strategy will include an indirect embrace of AI in the arts, where creativity becomes a healthy hybrid between human and machine. In the case of hip-hop, artists like 50 Cent have recently expressed their enjoyment of classic country music renditions of AI-assisted hip-hop (often made for humor). This is a model we will continue to see: AI-assisted reimaginings or remixes of classic songs. Furthermore, we may see developments in this model: the growth of the battle rap scene driven by AI algorithms trained on datasets of human artists. Or perhaps even rap duos consisting of two members: a rapper and his AI-trained sidekick (with the necessary hooks also delivered by a mix of human and AI singers).

This kind of Robo-Franken-Hip-Hop leaves a lot of room for intelligent engagement and can spawn entirely new subgenres of music. This would also have business implications: artists could potentially be rewarded based on their training data, which would be an improvement over hip-hop business models of the past and present. The possibilities are only as limited as the infinite combination of human ingenuity and computational power.

Finally, 2025 will mark the official beginning of a great paradox: AI art will spark a new appreciation for classic human-made monuments. As AI creations will quickly outpace human creations in scale, highly prized human artifacts will become even more valuable. For example, one of the messages that emerged from the celebration of 50 years of hip-hop was that society still lacks public appreciation for this art form. Fewer than a dozen hip-hop artists or groups have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Also, very few of hip-hop’s founders are wealthy, as they built the art form during an era when it was not financially profitable. Similar to how the old tech industry came to celebrate the simple devices of yesterday, we will see a renewed appreciation for music from the analogue era.

The emergence of artificial intelligence and related technologies will shed new light on original music produced before its advent. This will invite appreciation for raw hip-hop, which may translate into a lucrative industry around preserving original music, and the associated valorization of artists. Artificial intelligence may help give rise to hip-hop, finally getting the respect it has always deserved, and giving it a place among the high arts.

Human technology and art are two institutions defined by their ability to surprise us. Yes, the relationship between creativity and AI will be a stormy one for the foreseeable future, but 2025 will be an inflection point where we begin to embrace greater possibilities. There may be a creative light at the end of the technology tunnel, where analog art forms like hip-hop can flourish in the land of large language models and whatever else the age of artificial intelligence will offer.