Suno CEO Mikey Schulman found himself in an unlikely place for the founder of a generative AI music company: in a composition class at Berklee College of Music.
“I feel like I'm walking into a lion's den,” Schulman said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “The approach of just going in there and saying, 'Don't worry, there's no disruption here, everything is fine,' is probably not the right approach.” ”
So how did he try to convince them (at least)? Schulman used Suno to give his students a taste of what it's like to create songs with AI.
“If you look at it from a slightly different perspective, you can see that it's actually a very empowering tool,” he said.
AI builders may claim that they are building tools to enhance the work of creative people, like drum machines or synthesizers. And some artists may say that these tools are being trained from their work without their consent to sell them products that could take away their jobs. However, some entrepreneurs find these powerful music, video, and image generators inevitable.
“I'm asking someone to tell me that photography is worth less than it was 50 years ago,” Schulman said. Across the crowd, people were using iPhones to take photos and videos of the discussion, showing how ubiquitous smartphones have become.
“That's the promise of technology. It's not complete, and no technology advancement is complete, until it's literally in everyone's hands,” said Amit Jain, CEO of Luma AI. states.
Digital photography is definitely more popular now than it was in the days of flip phones, and some people may be less likely to hire a professional for a photoshoot or event. But there's still a fundamental difference in quality between the work of a professional photographer and a quick snap on a smartphone.
“I think people who have the sense and the skills can do a lot more,” Jain said.
On the other hand, there are companies like Splice that have been serving musicians for years, but have only recently started implementing AI.
“Over the past few years, we have introduced new AI-based tools that really help our customers. […] We are taking technology to the next level,” said Kakul Srivastava, CEO of Splice.
Still, the entertainment industry's response to these tools has been mixed. Hollywood writers campaigned to prevent their jobs from being replaced by AI. In the music industry, companies like Suno are facing lawsuits from record labels for using copyrighted songs in their training data without permission. Still, musician Timbaland is Suno's strategic advisor.
“Maybe jobs will be lost, but I think actually more art will be created because more people will have the ability to put that truth out there,” Shri Bastava said.
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