By Sheeva Azma
I previously blogged about my reluctance – nay, inability – to use ChatGPT, as well as my attempt to use a generative AI tool to summarize our YouTube videos. Today, I can say that I have finally used generative AI to do something…and that something is a thing that I could never do myself. I used it to write a song – actually, several songs – about Fancy Comma!
The website Suno.AI allows you to create songs based on short prompts. You can specify the topic of the song, as well as the type of song, and even specify specific attributes. Apparently, you can even specify lyrics to be sung.
Take, for example, this song called "LOOK MOM I AM A MUSICIAN!!!" created by a Suno.AI user. It's not written by me, but in my opinion, it is one of the most epic generative AI songs ever written. Just check out the lyrics: "I just wirte [sic] text, fill in a style and press a button / And it's awesome."
The obviously human-generated lyrics, replete with typos; the excitement of being able to write a song with generative AI; the idea that the person was really just trying this out because they were, like me, obsessed; it's all epic, if you ask me.
I tried my skill at genAI songwriting as well, of course. In the first prompt I gave it, I assumed it would do a deep dive into the topic. I asked it to write a techno/house song about Fancy Comma. It responded by composing an upbeat house ditty (listen to it on Suno.AI here!) that namedropped Fancy Comma, but didn't say much about it.
That's when I decided to get more specific. I asked it to write an indie rock song about Fancy Comma working at the intersection of science, communication, marketing, and policy…and it delivered with a musical number called "In the Lab."
Then, I asked it to write a song about overcoming global challenges through science communication. It came up with a song called "Words that Unite."
Lastly, I asked it to create a song with a woman vocalist who talked about our bipartisan, science-informed political communications services, and it served up an empowering song called "Unite and Lead."
I had fun! While I could probably write better songs given the time, I definitely don't have the music experience to create my own song of any genre. That's where generative AI boosted my creativity by helping me write both a song and lyrics incredibly quickly.
In the end, my generative AI experience was more fun than anything. So much is possible with generative AI, but we don't have to use it verbatim – it's just fun to see what it comes up with and to try and figure out if we can get our instructions to communicate what we need genAI to do well enough for it to get the job done. Exciting, indeed!
Pop songwriting seems like an ideal application of AI to me, especially because popular songs often borrow elements from other popular songs. The other thing about genAI music is that it makes me feel like I'm at an AI concert…especially when robots write lyrics about humanity and the human race as Suno.AI did in our political communications song.
Overall, I am pleased with my first real genAI experience. Who knew the future of genAI could fill in my creativity in places where I have ideas, but no real time, energy, or resources? Sure, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than nothing, and the creative process is exciting. You type the instructions…wait…and see what comes out. It's like a fun little experiment!
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