Black Music Month, AI & The Demographics of Innovation
In the late 1970s President Jimmy Carter declared that June would be Black Music Month to recognize the incredible influence that Black music has had on the United States and the world. I kicked off BMM with an AI-generated image of Robert Johnson, a Blues maverick whose recording career spanned only seven months, but is now recognized as a master of the blues and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
This month I also read the 2016 Demographics of Innovation in the United States report that provides information on who is driving technological innovation in the United States — including their gender, ethnicity, education, and age — as well as the settings and circumstances in which they are creating their innovations. Women represented just 12% of U.S. innovators, and U.S.-born minorities represented just 8% of U.S.-born innovators. Of the 8% only 0.4% were Black (African American).
I started to think about the lack of representation of underrepresented groups (i.e., Black/African American) in fields such as science and technology and the musical inroads made by mavericks (pioneers) such as Robert Johnson and blues performer Memphis Minnie who recorded around 200 songs including “When the Levee Breaks” that was covered by Led Zeppelin. I looked at where we can see innovation from or by underrepresented groups OUTSIDE of the so-called “innovation economy.”
This is where AI (artificial intelligence) comes in. Well-established R&B/Rap music producer Timbaland is planning to commercialize AI software that will revolutionize how songs are made. Timbaland created a great deal of controversy when he recently released a song with the late rapper Biggie Smalls, which he previewed on Instagram earlier this month. Biggie’s voice was generated using AI. This week Paul McCartney said that AI helped him complete the “last” Beatles Song. From a business angle, this may make sense but what about from a creative one?
There are many images of the late singer Phyllis Hyman in the world but there is none like this one (above) I created using Midjourney. When creating a prompt for this I was thinking about when she was at the top of her game. I remembered her voice and the kind of music she made. The resulting image is a representation of my knowledge of her and her music. Dozens of other people/users can create their own images of Phyllis Hyman but none will get this specific iteration.
I recently witnessed a kindergarten teacher collaborate with her student who used several colorful wooden blocks to “program” a dance sequence. Each color represented a dance move and the blocks could be arranged in a variety of patterns to get different results. Now, imagine multiplying the colors by 30 or 300, with even more opportunities for new results. Students could invent dances that have never before existed. In subsequent grades, students can learn to replace the wooden blocks with code blocks in Scratch or Snap, performing any number of actions… using algorithms.
This can and does happen when using AI to generate images and sounds. AI can be used as a way to contribute to art and culture, using creativity as a driver for innovation. Personally, AI has opened up new doors for creativity and for work. I’ve become a prolific digital artists who produces work daily and LEARNS with the machine along the way. As the technology improves, my methods and techniques get better and better.