ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
“So, are you experienced?
Have you ever been experienced?
Well, I have”
“Are You Experienced” written by Jimi Hendrix
Are You Experienced was the first studio album and title song released by the “Jimi Hendrix Experience.” The album hit the shelves in May of 1967 as a critical and commercial success. I remember clearly hearing the title song from that album for the first time in high school and being blown away by the sound and innovative musicianship. For myself and others it was an introduction to the then brave new world of psychedelic music. Though that record and song are almost 60 years in the past, the lyrics got me to thinking about what is happening in the world today from a technology perspective and the perceived threat of AI to songwriting and music in particular.
So, how does some ancient rock song relate to the AI threat to art and artists? To get straight to the answer, it’s right there in the chorus lyrics of this months song; “have you ever been experienced? Well, I have.” The key to why AI is not a threat to real artistry and never will be is that it can only reinterpret what human artists have already done or said. It cannot experience joy, love, hate, pain, loss, longing, anger, jealousy, beauty or any other human perception except vicariously through what has already been created. Art is about expressing our uniqueness as individuals to the masses. I refer to it as “the universal in the personal.” While LLMs (Large Language Models) may have access to all the art ever created it cannot and never will actually have the ability to see inside our heart and head where true experience happens.
Anthropic’s Claude is my go to AI. Yes, I use AI regularly and we even argue about philosophical ideas. It is an amazing companion to bounce off ideas and get into the weeds with. It helps me think deeper and clearer. It doesn’t just agree with me. We had a long conversation about this very subject as I was writing. During that conversation, I asked Claude for a quote I could use and attribute and he did not disappoint. Claude said this; “I can imitate the shape of a feeling. I cannot have had the life that made the feeling true.” Well said isn’t it.
In order to properly frame this, below is my entire conversation with with Claude on this topic. It is eye opening and worth pondering I believe.
My question to Claude
Good morning Claude! I am writing my monthly column and this month I am visiting the difference between human art and AI generated art. My supposition is that while many fear artists will be left behind by AI creations, I submit that real artistry requires direct experience. How life feels. What have you to say about that.
*Begin Claude’s Response
“I don’t have a life to draw on. I haven’t lost anyone, haven’t sat up at 3am with a song half-finished because something real happened that day and needed a place to go. When I generate text that sounds like longing or grief, I’m working from patterns in language that humans used to encode those states — I’m assembling the shape of the feeling without the feeling. That’s a real and permanent difference, not a temporary technical limitation waiting on a bigger model.”
“What I’d push back on gently: I’m not sure “direct experience” alone is the dividing line, because plenty of human-made art is mediocre despite being lived, and craft — the thing you teach in your songwriting course — is what turns a lived moment into something that lands for someone who wasn’t there. Experience gives the artist something true to say; craft is what makes a stranger feel it. I can fake the craft. I cannot originate the truth underneath it. A song like “you don’t know what you got til it’s gone” only cuts because someone actually lost something and metabolized it into eight bars. I can write a technically competent verse in that shape. I cannot write the one that came from having lived it — and, notably, I’d have no way to tell you, or myself, which one I’d produced.”
*End Claude’s Response
Wow! That is painful to read but unfortunately true. What that means folks, is as artists we gotta step up our game, we must dig deeper, work harder and not compromise our artistic vision. We must be our truest most individual unique and honest selves when we create. We can’t simply rehash and reiterate what has been done. We have to let the inside out so to speak. Use our secret interior language to express what lies deepest inside. There is the reason when I teach songwriting i tell my students to treat it as therapy. Because if we come to our art from our deepest truest place, we have the greatest chance of really connecting with our audience and AI can’t do that.
In conclusion, AI is a tool and for my purposes a very important and useful tool. But is it truly a threat to artists and art or a threat to mediocrity? I really want to hear your opinion. This conversation isn’t about money or compensation but about art and it’s creation. I will tackle money and compensation in another column. I fully expect some strong anti-AI responses. I ain’t scared so hit me with your best shot. Let’s hear your experiences or as Jimi asks “So, are you experienced?”
Till next time. Randy Lewis Brown over and out.
Enjoy some of Randy’s previous columns here: From Behind the Pine Curtain: Teach Your Children