Adam Neely on AI replacing the inspiring nature of musical craft: “I don’t see how greatness can come from a tool like generative AI”

Adam Neely, a jazz musician and music content creator, has discussed in-depth how AI within music can lead to de-skilling, and why its replacement of the craft of music could lead to an uninspiring musical landscape.

On the Within Reason podcast, hosted by Alex O’Connor, Neely dives into how the elimination of idea generation is removing the most inspiring element of music. The episode arrives three months after Neely made a video on his own channel titled Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future, which has reached over 900,000 views.

In his chat with O’Connor, Neely begins by sharing his fears for the future: “Disruption to the industry is very much at the forefront of my fears, but disruption to the industry has happened many times before in the music industry, like the invention of recorded music itself, the invention of the synthesiser,” he says.

“The art form itself is something that I am a bit fearful of. People talk all the time about de-skilling, which is the process by which we lose our skills because we’re automating them, like the case of the early 20th century [and] the assembly line; you had all these skilled manufacturers of cars but through the invention of the assembly line. They didn’t need to have those skills anymore… I’m worried that that’s going to happen.”

Neely eventually goes on to talk about the importance of “taste” in AI circles, and how this is seen to be the human element that remains when AI takes on the role of crafting, and is almost seen as a reasoning for using AI tools. To Neely, this is not necessarily a good thing.

“To me, that is a horrifying future. This is the bad future that I talk about in the Suno and AI video because there is very little inspiration to be had in another person’s taste, whereas there’s a lot of inspiration and a lot of direction that you can gain from another person’s craft,” he explains.

“The role models that I had when I grew up had amazing, beautiful musical crafts. And that was what I wanted to do with my life, I wanted to develop the crafts like they had. I didn’t really care what their taste in music was. I cared what they could do. I wanted to see what they could do. I wanted greatness. I wanted greatness for myself because they were great. And I don’t see how greatness can come from a tool like generative AI. It might, but I don’t see the path.”

He later adds: “In some of my more controversial statements, I’ve said that AI music is not music, which I think is not necessarily true. Sure, you could define it as music, [but] musicality to me is defined by interactions with other people and your ability to communicate an emotional state from yourself to another person, which is a fundamentally human thing.”

You can check out the full podcast episode below:

Rachel is a DIY musician who began learning guitar and keyboard from her bedroom at 14. She has written news and features for MusicTech since 2022, and also has bylines across Kerrang!, Guitar.com, and The Forty-Five. Though a lover of heavy music, her guilty pleasure is 2000s pop.