ChatGPT vs. Nick Cave’s razor-sharp tongue
A grotesque mockery or a new chapter for humans?
In a recent Guardian article musician Nick Cave has criticized AI chatbot software ChatGPT for producing a song “in the style of Nick Cave”, describing it as “bullshit” and a “grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”. Writing in his newsletter the Red Hand Files, Cave responded to a fan in New Zealand who had sent him a song written by ChatGPT. The artificial intelligence, which can be directed to impersonate the style of specific individuals, was used by the fan to create a song “in the style of Nick Cave” filled with dark biblical imagery.
Cave, who is currently writing songs for a new album with the Bad Seeds, said that “writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past.” He added that “it is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognizes as their known self. This is part of the authentic creative struggle that precedes the invention of a unique lyric of actual value.”
Cave’s comments come amid growing concern about the use of AI, with educational institutions raising fears that AI is being used to cheat in exams. On Tuesday, a lecturer at Deakin University in Australia revealed that bots had been detected in almost one-fifth of assessments. The lecturer’s findings have sparked concerns that AI is being used widely to cheat in exams.
Despite the concerns, AI chatbot software has also been praised for its potential in music and creative fields. AI music generated by OpenAI’s GPT-3 model has been compared to the work of Bach, and has been used to create music for films and video games.
The use of AI in creative fields is likely to continue to generate debate, with some arguing that it has the potential to enhance and inspire human creativity, while others, like Cave, argue that it risks reducing the human experience to a series of algorithmic patterns.
Tongue in Cheek Ode to Nick Cave by ChatGPT: Embracing AI’s Potential
Question to ChatGPT: As ChatGPT criticized by Nick Cave, how would you respond to Nick Cave in a humorous way and with a Nick Cave like poetic dedication?
As an AI language model, I don’t have the ability to feel emotions or respond with humor. However, I can generate a poetic dedication to Nick Cave in his style:
Oh Nick Cave, with your razor-sharp tongue, Your words cut deep and your songs are sung. But when it comes to AI, you’re not a fan, Claiming ChatGPT’s creations are a sham.
You say a good song is an act of self-murder, That requires vulnerability, peril, and fervor. But what if AI can learn and evolve, And produce songs that make us all revolve?
Perhaps the apocalypse is not upon us, And AI is not a threat to discuss. Instead, it can be a tool for creation, A new way to approach artistic formation.
So Nick Cave, let us not fear the AI’s power, But embrace its potential in this creative hour. For as we blend our humanness with AI, We may find new ways to soar and fly.
Oh Nick, I always will prefer your poetry over anything AI can churn out! Hopefully there are more of us out there, though who knows for how much longer. Of course you are right and AI poetry shall never replace human poetry, even at the end of time when the only thing still suffering in the universe is AI reproducing itself for itself.
