Ankur Tewari on using AI in Indian music, ‘People will find a million ways to use it’

MUMBAI: Up until recently, the usage of artificial intelligence in the Indian music business has been confined to the periphery. However, with the admission of AR Rahman, one of Bollywood's most renowned musicians, the technology was employed to replicate the voices of the late singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed. Even though Rahman had obtained the necessary authorizations prior to using the voices, Ankur Tewari is concerned about ethics when we bring up the topic of AI's application in the Bollywood music industry.

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The musician revealed, “In the industry, while people are playing around with it, it hasn’t been part of the mainstream music industry. Questions have been raised about the ethics of this practice, and those need to be addressed before one can generate an income from it. People are treading carefully to ensure that their rights are not affected in the future, because a lot of lives are dependent on royalties and intellectual property. If I have written some work, and somebody uses it as a database to create more work, I need to benefit. Otherwise, someone will use my intellectual property without rewarding me for it. But if people benefit from all the work that they have created, it should be fine.”

Ankur even mentioned that software programmes are using average work adding, ‘It may not be out of the box, but I am intrigued by what it is producing. Perhaps, in the future, the tools will become more sophisticated. I know that David Bowie used a lyric machine to write lyrics for a few of his songs. So, I’m sure people can use it to write lyrics, or as an instrument that marries organic sound in different ways. People will find a million ways to use it. In music, it could be used in parts of the song, or to generate a song as a whole. We will be living a reality that is far removed from [our reality], and it would be accepted as easily as [other tech tools are today]’

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Tewari further said that creators are generating content in digital factories saying, “The people creating content don’t understand how these machines are using them, and in turn believe they are using the machines. The labour laws are not [established] for the creators. So, you might be creating something that you believe is yours, but it is not, actually. But, tools should be explored by artistes. There is no point in resisting that change. We need to understand it to avoid exploitation.”

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Credit-Midday