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Friday, October 09, 2026
Stability AI CEO: In One Year, Our AI Tools Will Be Essential to Making All Music
www.thewrap.com: While most tech CEOs take a “build it, and they will come” mentality to building their products, Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju said he doesn’t develop any applications or AI models without the experts in the field.
I definitely find it interesting that this AI CEO sees a world where his AI photo and music and art-generating program becomes “necessary” for the process of creating music and soundtracks. That seems impossible, since people have been creating music and art since far before any AI tools ever existed. The same goes for the coding-focused AIs - I don’t necessarily think any of them could be described as “necessary,” since all of these tasks were done without AI before there was AI. I think it is an interesting concept to have industry experts provide their opinions in order to create better AI entertainment tools. The logic of “the coding models are the best because coders made them” makes sense; however, I think it is important to remember that coding, math, etc. are pretty objective. Code either works or it doesn’t, but music is a lot more subjective. I continue to be disappointed by this desire to make art “easier” when it seems much more desirable to spend more time creating art.
I am absolutely shocked and angry that I need to say this, but I will say it as many times as I need to: AI cannot feel, AI cannot create, and AI will NOT replace artists.. I am so angry that the ‘biggest evils’ in the industry are time and money – so ironic that the person saying that is in charge of developing the actual biggest evil. My dad was a scenic designer at this repertory theatre in Maine for most of my childhood and talks about how the boundaries of not having a lot of money or not having enough time during changeover for his original ideas would force him to be creative and design something that he was truly proud of. THAT is how art gets built. You don’t need to make things easier. Also, it shows that anyone who thinks that AI belongs in art values it so little that they either don’t recognize or don’t care that if everything is created by AI, it’s going to sound the same forever. Like AI doesn’t create anything, it just generates based on what it already knows.
“If you had an opportunity to decrease time and money and increase your output and story time, I say go for it” To say I was shocked when I read this is an understatement. I find it incredibly appalling that there are individuals that claim to be an important and necessary part of the entertainment industry while also being willing to sacrifice the humanity in their work. That being said, I also understand what time and money means in this industry and how important it is to be efficient in those areas, but they are not “evils”, and A.I. is not the answer. By being willing to cut corners with artificial intelligence I firmly believe that you are sacrificing the integrity of your work. Expanding technologies are important, but when looking back at the history of entertainment it is clear that a human is also the common denominator in making great art. By taking that away you are taking away the ability to create actually moving pieces. Also, it is clear this is not what the public wants, as some of the biggest box office numbers came from small studios with small budgets and limited time.
I think this is a very difficult topic to discuss in some contexts. Because on one hand, AI will continue to enter different work flows and sectors, and it will become impossible to avoid it even within the next year. However, it also can be a really useful tool in audio that automates some of the really technical aspects of sound such as frequency response or dynamic EQs. Creating music with AI might become a really interesting conversation about who’s music it is and how much creative recognition it deserves. I think it’s interesting that this startup has a lot of big music companies behind it, and I wonder what their future involvement is going to look like and how much they want to get their hands on the new technologies that are emerging in their industry. As someone who is slowly getting more into music production, I would like to learn more about how this company thinks AI will contribute to making music in the future and what tools it plans to release for the public to use.
4 comments:
I definitely find it interesting that this AI CEO sees a world where his AI photo and music and art-generating program becomes “necessary” for the process of creating music and soundtracks. That seems impossible, since people have been creating music and art since far before any AI tools ever existed. The same goes for the coding-focused AIs - I don’t necessarily think any of them could be described as “necessary,” since all of these tasks were done without AI before there was AI. I think it is an interesting concept to have industry experts provide their opinions in order to create better AI entertainment tools. The logic of “the coding models are the best because coders made them” makes sense; however, I think it is important to remember that coding, math, etc. are pretty objective. Code either works or it doesn’t, but music is a lot more subjective. I continue to be disappointed by this desire to make art “easier” when it seems much more desirable to spend more time creating art.
I am absolutely shocked and angry that I need to say this, but I will say it as many times as I need to: AI cannot feel, AI cannot create, and AI will NOT replace artists.. I am so angry that the ‘biggest evils’ in the industry are time and money – so ironic that the person saying that is in charge of developing the actual biggest evil. My dad was a scenic designer at this repertory theatre in Maine for most of my childhood and talks about how the boundaries of not having a lot of money or not having enough time during changeover for his original ideas would force him to be creative and design something that he was truly proud of. THAT is how art gets built. You don’t need to make things easier.
Also, it shows that anyone who thinks that AI belongs in art values it so little that they either don’t recognize or don’t care that if everything is created by AI, it’s going to sound the same forever. Like AI doesn’t create anything, it just generates based on what it already knows.
“If you had an opportunity to decrease time and money and increase your output and story time, I say go for it” To say I was shocked when I read this is an understatement. I find it incredibly appalling that there are individuals that claim to be an important and necessary part of the entertainment industry while also being willing to sacrifice the humanity in their work. That being said, I also understand what time and money means in this industry and how important it is to be efficient in those areas, but they are not “evils”, and A.I. is not the answer. By being willing to cut corners with artificial intelligence I firmly believe that you are sacrificing the integrity of your work. Expanding technologies are important, but when looking back at the history of entertainment it is clear that a human is also the common denominator in making great art. By taking that away you are taking away the ability to create actually moving pieces. Also, it is clear this is not what the public wants, as some of the biggest box office numbers came from small studios with small budgets and limited time.
I think this is a very difficult topic to discuss in some contexts. Because on one hand, AI will continue to enter different work flows and sectors, and it will become impossible to avoid it even within the next year. However, it also can be a really useful tool in audio that automates some of the really technical aspects of sound such as frequency response or dynamic EQs. Creating music with AI might become a really interesting conversation about who’s music it is and how much creative recognition it deserves. I think it’s interesting that this startup has a lot of big music companies behind it, and I wonder what their future involvement is going to look like and how much they want to get their hands on the new technologies that are emerging in their industry. As someone who is slowly getting more into music production, I would like to learn more about how this company thinks AI will contribute to making music in the future and what tools it plans to release for the public to use.
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