The other day, my intrepid editor, Alan Crandall, sent me a link to an article about an AI artist topping the Christian album chart on iTunes and asked for my thoughts. I had mixed feelings and considering I have generated my fair share of AI music, I thought I would weigh in.
Solomon Ray
The artist is named Christopher Jermaine Townsend who created an AI artist named Solomon Ray. At the time the article was posted, Solomon Ray held the number 1 and number 5 slots on the Billboard Gospel digital sales chart with “Find Your Rest” and “Goodbye Temptation.” I linked to the songs here, check them out for yourself. Personally I liked them, but I understand the issues. For his part, the article quotes Townsend saying, “In his view, the question of whether AI can deliver a spiritual message isn’t for any one person to decide. Who am I to say what God will or won’t use to get the message His people need to them?” I completely agree with that statement. If I didn’t, I would not be making this music myself. But there is another side to the discussion.
Forrest Frank
The article also features Christian musician, Forrest Frank, making a comment that is hard to ignore. He said, “At minimum, AI does not have the Holy Spirit inside of it. So I think that’s really weird to be opening up your spirit to something that has no spirit.” This is also hard to argue with, but I am tempted to anyway, but first an illustration.
Dave the Wanna-Be
I have never been a musician. I am however a musician “wanna-be.” I have virtually no musical talent, but I see the way music touches hearts and minds and I have always wanted to tap into that. I’ve have spent the majority of my working years as an artist/graphic designer, etc. I remember in the pre-digital days, creating visuals into the wee hours of the morning, running my airbrush. So often I would be in the midst of my project (or more probably nearing the end) when the airbrush, would “spit” and an air bubble would push a glob of paint out on to my project, often ruining it, making me start over.
Airbrushes and Photoshop
Along came Adobe Photoshop. All of the sudden I could get the same look as my airbrush, using digital tools and any mistakes could be corrected with a simple click of the undo button. I thought I was in heaven. It was the perfect tool for the cartoony style art I so often do and as a result, I haven’t picked up an airbrush in years. Photoshop didn’t make me a better artist necessarily. It was simply a better tool to get the results I desired. I still had to do the work and the creativity was still “mine.” but the tool made the working experience better and I was better able to meet my deadlines with less stress and anxiety. It was a win-win.
Where’s the Spirit?
It’s hard for me to argue with Mr. Frank. He is, after all a real musician and I am not. The article does refer to Mr. Townsend as a rapper. In other words he is a musician too. It sounds like both of these men have musical skills, while I do not, so I weigh in cautiously here. Where I must take issue with Mr. Frank, is in the question of whether or not the AI music has the Spirit in it. To be clear, this is not a ghost in the machine situation, the AI has neither soul not Spirit… but I do.
Who Wields the Hammer?
Think of it this way. A hammer can be used to build a cathedral or a house of ill repute. It’s not the hammer that is good or evil. The tool is inanimate. Whether it is used for good or evil is dependent one the heart of one who wields it. My MacBook Pro, and the AI platform I use are soul-less machines. They are tools. They can be used for good or evil, and that is up to the heart of the operator and whether or not he is submitted to the Lord. And while I am sure I can come up short, my desire is to glorify the Lord with all the art I make, even if I use AI to make it.
SUNO Bears Fruit
No I have no musical ability at all, but do you know what I do have? I have the ability to write poetry/lyrics. My first experiment with AI music was in trying to create a theme song for a week of camp ministry on the theme of the fruit of the Spirit. I simply fed the AI Galatians 5:22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” I was happy with what my program (SUNO) generated from my prompt, until it came to the end of the fruit, where it said “Self control is like a tree.” That generation illustrates Mr. Frank’s point. AI does not have the Spirit, but again, I do. From that point forward, I wrote all the lyrics. Hopefully the Spirit within me rings out in these lyrics.
SDG
For the record, I still don’t consider myself a musician, nor will I create a musical alter ego. The attraction of this tool for me is that it allows me to generate music that fits my ministry and doesn’t violate a real musician’s copyrights. Part of the joy in creating this kind of music, is that I feed it my lyrics, push a button and receive a song in seconds. It’s almost like Christmas morning, waiting to see what gift has been generated from my words—words I have prayed over and for which I have sought the Lord. I am so convicted about the fact that the music is not my creation that I always sign my work, adding the initials “SDG” behind my name. It’s the way Bach signed his compositions. It stands for Soli Deo Gloria, which is Latin for, “to God alone be the glory.”
A Pragmatic Solution
To be clear, I would rather work with live musicians, but they are rarely in my budget or the budget of the churches and venues where I minister, and to be honest, I have no intention of selling my music. I use it to serve my ministry and to add another dimension to my Gospel presentations and messages, and they seem to connect with people of all age ranges. It is nice to have music that directly fits my presentation, because it, along with the art I create and all the other elements of the presentation flow together to draw people into the point.
Tools Are Neutral
Is AI music real music? I don’t know, What I know is, it seems to help me in communicating the Gospel, and who am I to say God can’t use it. In my experience, tools are neutral, what makes them good or bad is the heart of the person using the tool. My intent is to “use whatever gifts I have received to serve others.” AI music is a tool to be used to that end for me. I love that I can change a song to any genre, to reach any audience with a simple prompt. I think it’s a great tool. The question is how will we use this tool that has been provided? I want to use it well, to God’s glory, or I won’t use it at all.
You can see some of my AI songs and other projects here.
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