Darcy Watkins
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has meaning that has evolved over the years since the beginning of the computer age as well as having popular and context specific meanings, some of which is hype. As such, I feel it is necessary to make a voluntary AI use disclosure to clarify the extent of “AI” use in my music and/or at this web site. And to give a reminder that my works are protected according to provisions of copyright laws.
There have been recent advances in what the industry refers to as “Generative AI” which is software and/or services which based on “input prompts” (or instructions) from the user, can generate content. This can include articles, messages, images, audio and video recordings and even song compositions. The generated content, though it may appear creative, is the result of user provided input, the input prompts, the AI model(s) used and what they have been trained on. Any and all of these can affect the quality of the generated content. I tend to think of AI generated output as like a histogram or consensus of what was fed in as training material to the model and how it processes the input prompts. Thus AI can be effective at drawing trends out of the masses of publicly available information. But it is only as good as the information itself.
There are concerns about copyright infringement by the training processes and who owns the results. Some of these have resulted in court rulings, and others are still before the courts. We are likely to see an update to copyright laws once this has been sorted out. Present legal opinions tend to consider original creative input to an AI assisted process as original work, but the AI generated portion as public domain. But this can change. There is a significant exchange of money over the use of AI services with the owners of original works used for training NOT being compensated for the use of their works with many such works NOT being in the public domain. I believe that once the industry and the copyright laws catch up with the technology, there will emerge a mechanism for remuneration, much like we have seen for traditional uses and more recent digital streaming uses. Some day, creatives may even create content specifically to license for AI training.
There are numerous processing algorithms that some may regard as AI or AI like even though they are not related to present suite of generative AI offerings. Some vendors rename it, for example: Apple call theirs, Apple Intelligence.
So how is AI used at Let Praise Arise?
- Synthesized waveforms from generators and/or licensed sample sources including software libraries, plugins and even digital musical instruments may be used in recordings to supplement raw recorded instruments such as guitars. This is not a big deal today, but was once considered revolutionary.
- Some digital effects algorithms, for example, pitch correction may be applied to raw recorded material such as vocals (or even an instrument).
- Some AI digital algorithms may have been used to split vocals from instruments from live recordings to make subsequent editing and mix down more flexible. People also use such for karaoke applications.
- Digital AI like algorithms may be used for the final “mastering” of a recording before embedding it into a lyric video. In my case, it is usually Apple’s AI assisted mastering tool in Logic Pro.
- Experimental AI software may have been used in rare cases to correct lyrics. For example, train the model on the voice used in the recording, then re-record an erroneous line, then morph it to the original voice. See my article using Applio for more info.
- Artwork used in lyric videos (and throughout this web site) are original or from free licensed sources. Some from licensed sources may have been AI generated and/or modified. Where the source requires attribution, it can be found on the web page, or in the information at YouTube for a video.
- Real photos / videos may have been touched up using AI assisted edits, for example to remove unwanted people and/or items from the photo or video.
No song or recording at Let Praise Arise has been composed or created using generative AI (unless otherwise clearly marked on the page for that song).
I close with the following remark. Today’s AI is tomorrow’s normal software tool, especially once you can run it on your own computer rather than having to “rent’ it from a subscription service. I use tools as part of a workflow, not as a substitute for creativity. AI may be able to jumble together phrases or help with rhymes but even today’s most advanced AI is not truly creative, but consists of digital algorithms used to interpolate or extrapolate “signals” (text, audio, visual, etc) according to models guided by user prompts. There is even concern that as AI training captures more and more AI generated content as its input, it will lose touch with reality, collapse in on itself, eventually just spewing out junk.
All my works (on this web site or otherwise) are copyright with all rights reserved. Any unlicensed use (including to train AI models, etc) may be subject to infringement claims under present and/or future copyright laws. Church use can be covered by CCLI licences (some resources available at CCLI Song Select). Many other use cases are covered by PRO and RRO licenses and/or how materials are released using digital distribution services. Certain personal and non-profit public uses are permitted under local laws. And finally, a reminder that any use not permitted or licensed is essentially an infringement.