U.Va Musician, MaxwellMitchell, Explores AI, Art andHumanity In His Upcoming Album
James Torgerson / VMag at UVA
How a local musician is exploring the tense relationship between AI’s rapid advancement and its influence on humanity through his new album “Artificial Age.”
Open TikTok, and you will be inundated with musician after musician seeking to build a following and share their art with the world. However, the recent rapid advancement in generative artificial intelligence has given rise to a new breed of musicians: AI singers.
Earlier this year, TikTok “singer” Sienna Rose faced immense backlash after accusations of being AI-generated. In contrast, Iranians have embraced a protest song by AI-singer Nava, who cannot be arrested, unlike her human counterparts. These “singers” are nearly indistinguishable from humans and have raised questions about what it means to be a creator, an artist and a human. One University student is pursuing answers.
Maxwell Mitchell, a fourth-year College student and the Co-President of the Miller Arts Scholars, is exploring the acceleration of AI and its multifaceted influence on humanity through his concept album, “Artificial Age.” Mitchell, a guitarist and vocalist for the local band Krispies, began making music as a junior in high school. As a long-time artist, he sees art as a form of human expression and a way for humanity to convey its existence. The danger, he explained, lies in how we use AI.
“If we’re outsourcing more and more of that activity [creating art] to AI, we’re going to lose more and more of our humanity,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell’s album centers around the recurring theme of humanity’s relationship with AI with each song exploring different sub-themes. One track examines AI replacing human work, while another uses the guise of a breakup song to reflect on humanity’s complicated relationship with AI. Other songs are more future-looking, such as one about humans flexing the latest updates to their bodies, similar to how contemporary singers flex their wealth and social status.
Mitchell sees AI as a useful brainstorming and support tool, but not a replacement for human-created art. Instead, he views art as a fascinating way to explore the complex intellectual and philosophical perspectives surrounding the human experience. Thus, he wants his concept album to deeply explore the nuanced relationship between technology and humanity.
“It’s going to get to a point where we’re going to have to completely rethink how work exists as a whole as AI gets better,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell is noticing a rising trend in the music industry: people using tools like Suno, an AI-powered audio workstation, to easily generate human-made music. As someone interested in pursuing a professional music career, he is worried that larger players in the music industry may try to cut costs by replacing musicians’ and songwriters’ work with AI.
For Mitchell, the acceleration and increasing generality of AI represent a paradigm shift in how we think about art and its relationship to the economy. We currently treat it as a commodity that is produced, appraised and sold. With AI able to replace production work, art as a commodity becomes less valuable; However, Mitchell argues that while art may become less economically valuable, it will still be crucial as a means of human expression.
“Whether or not AI becomes really good at making a great pop song that a billion people listen to, I think has no effect on whether people will still want to create music and create art, because that’s what humanity will always want to do,” Mitchell said.
Thus, “Artificial Age” also explores the sociopolitical implications of rapid AI integration. Mitchell repeatedly uses the motif of Soma, a fictional drug featured in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel “Brave New World,” throughout his album. Soma is a government-produced narcotic aimed at keeping people complacent by inducing instant euphoria. Mitchell uses Soma as a placeholder to represent different escapes from reality, such as an incredibly realistic, futuristic virtual reality where people can be whoever they want rather than their true selves.
Mitchell’s album is a tour de force, seeking to understand humanity’s relationship with a rapidly advancing and potentially world-altering technology. While supporting human-produced music is wonderful, Mitchell also recommends supporting local music organizations. He recommends on- grounds organizations like Indieheads and University Records, as well as Charlottesville venues like the Jefferson Theater, the Southern Café and Music Hall on the Downtown Mall.
With the continued acceleration of AI in music, Mitchell believes live music will become more important in humanity’s cultural fabric. As he puts it, it will be more difficult to distinguish between AI-recorded music and human-made music, and, as a result, people will prefer to see live shows.
“I think a lot more people are going to want to see actual humans perform things in front of them live,” Mitchell said. “It’s gonna be harder to distinguish music from human-made or AI.”
He wants to recognize his friends both at home and at the University who have helped him by contributing vocals, writing lyrics, and filming music videos. “Artificial Age” is set to release in early April and will be available on the major music streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.