Dr Dre seems to have doubled down on his pro-AI stance. In fact, he’s had a bit of a spirited discussion about what is very much the issue of the day with his old NWA bandmate Ice Cube on a new podcast.
The occasion was the debut episode of Listen & Laugh, a new vehicle helmed by Cube and the actor and comedian Mike Epps. Dre was their first guest and the conversation, as indeed every conversation seems to these days, soon alighted on the rights and wrongs of AI. The 61-year-old producer said he was “extremely excited” about it.
“I love the idea of where it could possibly go with music, with film,” he expanded. “What happens if someone says, ‘I’m gonna pay you, Cube, to be in my movie, right? You don’t even have to be there, but you get to approve what they do. It’s your image and your voice.
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“What’s wrong with that? It’s just a whole new level of creativity. I think the only people that are gonna be mad about the elevation of AI are the people who aren’t that creative.”
Ice Cube, who has previously voiced his concerns about AI, gently pushed back on this, asking his friend if he would feel aggrieved if a producer went into a studio and used AI to copy his style of production. “No,” he replied, “because as a creative force and as an innovator, I could not be mad at that. I would respect that.”
The producer made the point (which plenty of others have argued) that AI is similar to sampling. Cube then shot back asking, “(What) if someone made (Nuthin’ But A) ‘G’ Thang,’ remade it, and made it bigger than Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg?” To which Dre replied: “I would love that because that is a part of creativity and innovation, right? This is just a whole new level of creativity that we have to get used to. You have to get used to it, or you’re gonna be left behind.”
Cube wouldn’t budge, though, arguing that there is a difference between the creativity involved in working an existing sample into a new track and just putting prompts into AI. His friend wasn’t having any of it though, saying: “Why do you give a fuck about how we made records opposed to how the new generation is making them? What if that is just something new?
“This is what happens with guys that are our age. It’s like we don’t wanna take the time to learn a new technology, so we have a problem with the way they’re doing things.”
It’s an argument many of us have already had and a debate that will doubtless run and run…
