AI Music: The Infinite Jukebox

Generative AI models trained on vast swaths of popular music can create songs almost indistinguishable from human-made work. For some, they represent the future of pop music. For others, they threaten to flood the world with ‘AI slop’, drowning out the work of human artists, stealing musicians' jobs, and ending the process of music-making as we know it. Is this just a case of technophobia? Or could AI music generators replace human musicians altogether? In the first in a two-part series, the FT’s pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney speaks to musicians and artists about the inventive power...