Understanding AI is a video series aiming to investigate Aotearoa musicians and sound engineer’s concerns with AI as it creeps its way into their workforce. Matthew Lovett describes AI and music as a case of replacement anxiety, where while continuing to work and produce in their fields, musicians can’t help but have the looming thought that they wont be relevant in the industry one day soon. Lovett has taken note of many companies already providing AI services in the realms of music production framing them as new “assistants”, the wording of which aims to settle anxieties about taking the big jobs, while avoiding the fact that production assistants are already paid roles many musicians inhabit (272). In a country like Aotearoa where the musical job sector is already so contained, we wanted to hear from voices of the new generation as they try to break-into this market at a turbulent time.

In this edition, Franke heads to the Massey University campus in Te Whanganui-a-Tara to talk to students and staff members about their experiences and concerns with AI within Aotearoa.

Work Cited:

Lovett, Matthew. ‘Artificial Creativity and Tools for Understanding’. Innovation in Music: Technology and Creativity, by Jan-Olof Gullö et al., 1st ed., Focal Press, 2024, pp. 267–77. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003118817-19.