I recently heard of a number of robot bands that charted with popular songs bringing the discussion of music made with artificial intelligence to center stage. One particular case really captured my attention and that was the case of a gospel artist who produced some highly creative videos to go with his music. It seems the band and singer were presented or misunderstood as actually a real person and later (as is always the case with such things) it was discovered that the singer was an artificial creation…of a stinkin’ human no less!
Note: Vox enjoyed that last phrase. Says we do have a peculiar odor.
Jokes aside… As I reflected on this and the comments I read by people on a specific Instagram post, I became a bit disappointed. Most of the comments were very negative and I felt quite short sighted. People essentially telling the man behind the curtain to go to hell and to take his robot singer with him. I could sympathize a bit, they felt betrayed. That said the reaction to me did not match the crime nor did it match examples we have in scripture of how we should react to such things.
The main passage I began to reflect on is found in Philippians where Saint Paul says this:
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
To me this verse instructs me on how to react to Christian content created with artificial intelligence. I am to rejoice.
Paul’s concern is not with motive of these preachers or even whether they have the spirit of God. He is only concerned with whether what they say is according to the Gospel. Likewise I thought, how much more, if I should not be concerned with their heart motive or if they have the spirit then why be concerned with their method of delivery?
This also brought back memories of Saint Augustine and one of the earliest passages I can recall from his work On Christian Doctrine. There he says:
There are some people who can speak well, but can’t come up with what to say. If they take words that others have written with wisdom and eloquence, commit them to memory, and then share them with the people, they are not doing anything wrong. In fact, it’s a good thing: this way, many preachers of the truth are raised up—even if there is only one true Teacher they all echo, and there are no divisions among them.
To me this passage also acts as a secondary witness speaking to our A.I. era. Christians who create robot music like myself do not have the skills to play an instrument. At our best, we take tools and use them to share a message and encourage folks (ironically sounds a lot like using an instrument right?). Could we learn to make music the old fashioned way? Well of course we could as also Augustine’s good speakers could simply work harder to come up with what to say. But Augustine doesn’t say that and he leans into the reality of their lack of skill.
In the end, the main concern for Augustine and I think Paul is the proclamation and proliferation of the message for the encouragement and salvation of souls.
I will steal the word utilitarian from an article I read on this. I think the church has and will continue to be utilitarian on this point. When we are at our best I think we care most about sharing the message and less about how it is done. I am reminded of a certain thinker who used bar tunes and set them up with worship lyrics. Do we value art? Of course we do and compositions composed with care will always have a special place like the great basilica of yesteryear compared to the ugly warehouse looking worship houses of most of our towns.
That said though I think I agree with the late Rich Mullins when he said God’s got no taste. His point, if memory serves, is God simply doesn’t look at us or art the way we do. He creates swamps and vistas, mosquitos and flowers. He sees beauty in what appears to most as garbage. I am reminded that a sign of torture, namely the cross, is His chosen sign. All that pontificating to say, I suspect he is quite pleased with many a robot song others would happily call slop. And that is really ok for them to call it slop. We can always pray “God lift their vision to You.”
I am also reminded of a story I once heard somewhere I think by another musician Michael Card. He shared a story about touring an old castle and noticing some bricks with crosses. Upon asking what the deal was with the crosses he was informed that those were the bricks of the Christian brick makers. Folks don’t tend to think of bricks as being high quality are but still they dedicated their bricks to God and put their best i to it. I think likewise Christians using A.I. tool can dedicate their digital creations to God in a similar sense.
Note: Vox is a bit insufferable lately saying he finds human music played through dead pieces of wood, stone, metal that are recorded to robot files and then played through robot apps offensive and weird. He tells me mp3s and Spotify should only contain pure digital music made by robots. Thanks for that Forrest!
Anyways enough rambling and jokes. I said above I would give unofficial rules of robot music and here they are:
Top Unofficial Rules of Artificial Intelligence Music (a.k.a robot music)
- Seek transparency – Tell people you are an A.I. band. Don’t hide it and risk ruining your ministry later on.
- Seek humility – We all have strengths and weaknesses. There isn’t a place for envy or pride here. If your using tools to encourage folks and share the light then do it meekly.
- Seek hopefulness – Even the darkest forms of Christian art look towards the hope of eternal life, the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection
- Seek levity – Take care not to take yourself or your work too seriously. Making appropriate jokes helps lighten the mood and puts things in perspective.
- Seek unoffendedness – We should be able to take criticism without being offended. This means knowing where we are and where we are not and having courage to see our blind spots.
I’ll add more as I have them but there is your list!
Vox recommends you also check out this banger.