Martin Clancy was interviewed by No More Workhorse to discuss himself, AI, and the release of his book Artificial Intelligence and Music Ecosystem.
The first signs of AI were things like the Roy Orbison hologram tour and the Beatles’ Love album…
– Killian Laher, No More Workhorse
MC: AI is an umbrella term for a bunch of different technologies, primarily machine learning. You’re right to identify the Roy Orbison and the Love album as the first indicators of a different approach and the shape of how things are certainly going now with AI. Of course, you have tribute bands, which we have of many dead singers. While that’s got nothing to do with AI, that’s definitely got to do with this idea of recreating something that is no longer real. The logical extension of that is the Abbatars and the success that’s had where they use the latest technology to build a virtual band. What’s interesting about that is everybody’s raving about it. Artistically, economically, you can’t argue with it, but it’s not hard to imagine other versions of that being done where somebody is basically resurrected without their permission and it’s being done in a tacky kind of way and on the cheap as well. So you can definitely see where you go, we haven’t got the budget for that, but why don’t we just bring back X, use a bit of AI and see if we can make a few bob from it. That’s up to people to say, I’m not buying a ticket for that.