AI is creating a 'human premium' for art made by people, but whether that premium will hold is uncertain. In a former bank building in Falmouth, Cornwall, a recent DJ night called Rave Machine showcased a fundamentally human experience — the crowd, performers, and music connecting to create something special and one-of-a-kind. Even in the DJ world, technology has changed the equation. In the 1990s, DJs relied on vinyl, turntables, and mixers. Now, software can sync beats automatically, and platforms like Apple Music and Spotify offer AI-powered tune-mixing.
The core question generative AI poses is whether we care if art is made by a human or a machine. Deezer reports that 44% of tracks uploaded to its platform are AI-generated, and 97% of listeners couldn't distinguish AI-generated music from human-made tracks. Yet more than half of those surveyed said they still prefer human involvement.
Daniel Susskind, an economics professor at King's College London, argues that we value the human process behind art. Looking at the Sistine Chapel, he says, we marvel not just at the beauty but at the fact that a human mind conceived it. Similarly, when Garry Kasparov lost to IBM's Deep Blue in 1997, fears that chess interest would decline proved wrong — chess is now more popular than ever. What matters is not just the output, but the human behind it.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing