Split Seams was released quietly last weekend. The reason why I didn't put much effort into the release was because it doesn't feel like "mine." I used generative AI to create the sound from prompts, then cut it up into small pieces, then worked those pieces into a sound I liked. I wanted to do this process specifically for this release because I wanted to experiment with how viable of a process this is... Is generative AI really my work? How much can I break it down, cut it into pieces, and then make something that felt like mine, and not something an algorithm on a computer did for me?

Honestly, I wasn't satisfied with the results. Even though I put in my best effort to make the music feel like mine by modifying it until it no longer resembled the original prompts, it still didn’t capture my sound.

Don't worry, I have learned from this.

There are two main types of AI: generative and assisted. You can think of generative AI as asking ChatGPT to write a story about a cat that falls in love with a mouse. ChatGPT references the text it was trained on to create something original, but in reality, it copies from its references. Even if you edit the story to sound more human and cut it up so you no longer recognize it as AI-generated, the story remains AI. Assisted AI is a bit different. Think of it as you writing the same story, but your grammar is poor, so you use AI to help improve it. Even if AI changes every word you wrote, the story still belongs to you because it came from you.

This idea is the same, but for music. Just because you improve someone else's work doesn't mean the original work is yours. Instead, I'm going to take a different approach by having AI assist me with creating the music I want, rather than actually creating it for me. Making music is more than having a cool beat and writing some lyrics.

I decided to release Split Seams anyway because I want to be honest with my listeners. I'd like you to see what generative AI can do, and then consider what I can achieve with assisted AI. This is about learning, growing together, and being transparent.