Ghost in the drum machine: How creative AI is kicking off a paradigm shift in music

As far back as the 19th century, soothsayers have been promising and warning against it in equal measure. While we have yet to achieve a post-scarcity utopia or descend into a robot-ruled wasteland, year upon year, little by little, many of those predictions have jumped from the pages of sci-fi novels and into news headlines as ever-increasing computing power turns future fantasies into tangible reality. From law enforcement to medicine and visual arts to weaponry, the real-world impacts of AI are already being felt. Tech's best and brightest are hard at work trying to streamline the songwriting process or replace it altogether: Splice's Similar Sounds uses AI to scan thousands of samples before offering the best kick to complement your snare; Orb's Producer Suite generates rhythms, melodies and chord progressions to help you get started on a track; and services like Amper need only a few keywords to create fully realised background music. So, are composers and songwriters staring into the void of their own obsolescence?