Dr. Caitlin Moore, associate director of vocal studies and assistant interim director of the music department, sits in her office. Moore shared her thoughts with Criterion about the changes the professional vocal and music education fields are seeing as a result of AI.
The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on art has been a controversial topic that has been at the forefront of artists’ minds in recent years. Recent advances in AI and language learning models have made it possible to create entire songs from simple prompts, mimic instrumental tracks, and write lyrics that are indistinguishable from human-made music.
At the Moss Performing Arts Center (MPAC), the offices of Caitlin Moore, CMU’s assistant director of vocal studies and interim assistant director of music, are located in the northwest corner of the building. She has an orderly desk surrounded by shelves of green plastic plants. Moore is sitting across the room at her favorite baby grand piano. She provided the music professor’s insights on recent advances in AI technology.
Do you think AI has had a positive impact on the music industry?
“I think this is a very difficult question to answer in a binary way, positive or negative. In my opinion, so far, it’s like comparing AI to the internet. When AI came out, people were very scared of the consequences, but at the same time they were also looking at the advances it could cause. It’s the same thing. There are certainly some scary parts and a lot of unknowns, but at the same time, there are obviously advances that can be used. I won’t judge whether it’s positive or negative, but I don’t know yet that AI will be a part of it.”
What aspects of music instruction and student engagement have changed since the rise of AI?
“Here are some useful things I have personally seen with AI. [that] Easy to create rehearsal tracks. I teach voice lessons and commercial ensembles, so this is really helpful. I see it a lot, so that’s helpful. One of the more annoying things I’ve seen is students writing assignments that look like program notes. For example, we’ve seen some students take AI and use it in their program notes, and it’s very obvious when that happens.
The problem is that there’s a lot of information out there that isn’t accurate. This is close, but not quite correct. The same goes for dictionaries. I teach dictionaries to singers, and I use something called the International Phonetic Alphabet. AI can actually be very useful in helping people understand how to pronounce words in languages they don’t know.
That’s mostly true, but not always. So I think my general rule of thumb when using AI is to use it for processes rather than end products. It’s a tool you can use, but you have to check the source and make sure it’s doing everything we used to do before AI. ”
Do you often see AI in the student assignments you receive?
“No, because I don’t write a lot of papers and stuff, so it’s really hard to get people to practice AI. Maybe when people are researching composers and stuff in the background, and again, as long as they check those sources and use it as a process rather than a product, I’m fine with that.”
Will the introduction of AI put musicians at a disadvantage in the future?
“Again, I think this is a really difficult question, and I think it’s something along the same lines, if you think about AI as an end product. [having] If AI were to write songs…then musicians would probably be at a disadvantage. Maybe I’m just hoping, but I doubt it will completely replace musicians. I think part of the appeal of live music is the imperfection, the fact that in a live performance you never know what’s going to happen next. Something could be messed up. There are risk factors that AI removes. It’s the same thing when I listen back to a live performance, there is beauty in its imperfections. It’s a big part of what we do. Maybe musicians will be at a disadvantage in some ways, and there may be jobs that can be replaced by AI, but I think we’re smart and we’re going to find ways to incorporate AI into what we do, rather than letting it completely replace the arts. Hopefully. “
Do you think AI can reproduce human art in non-live environments?
“Well, sometimes it’s already hard to tell if art is AI or not, and sometimes it’s very obvious. I think it will get better in the future, but the imperfections in human art are what make it beautiful.”
How do you think AI will impact the music school landscape in the next five years?
“I think we’ll see more lessons using AI. From an educational perspective, we’re seeing lessons being delivered with AI, both in terms of how to use it in the classroom, how to find students who are using it, and how to use it in the profession, such as creating lesson plans. The same goes for music schools.”
I think we should probably embrace it instead of leaving it unused for a while. We hold classes, especially in production, and teach students how to use it in ways that will help them in their careers. Students will use this when they need help, and they probably already do. ”
