That's the response you'll hear from self-proclaimed music purists talking about technological innovation in song creation. Sampling, synthesizers, drum machines, Auto-Tune--all have been derided as lazy ways to make chart-topping hits because they take away the human element. The new argument among fans and musicians will be about the use of artificial intelligence in songwriting. According to several estimates, in the next decade, between 20% and 30% of the top 40 singles will be written partially or totally with machine-learning software. Today, recording pros can use A.I.-powered programs to cue an array of instrumentation (from full orchestral arrangements to hip-hop beats), then alter it by mood, tempo, or genre (from heavy metal to bluegrass).

IBM Watson and Daybreaker hosted the World's First Cognitive Dance Party in San Francisco by using Watson Tone Analyzer, Watson Personality Insights, Chef Watson and Watson Beat. With Personality Insights API Daybreak was able to base the colors, music playlists, kick-off fitness session, healthy breakfast, and intention card all on the each attendees' personality. Tone Analyzer drove the color of a rising cognitive sun based on sentiment analysis of tweets of around the country. While Watson Beat created new riffs using inputs from pianist ELEW, using one or several of his musical filters. Even the Breakfast was courtesy of Chef Watson, which featured unexpected ingredient combinations, tailored again to attendee personality.

Music has been made on computers for decades, but the technology has traditionally been much more utilitarian than collaborative when it comes to the music-making process. In recent years, however, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved to a level where it can help artists actually create music for 50-piece orchestras and even help craft Billboard hits. Singer-songwriter and YouTuber Taryn Southern has decided to push the limits of AI composition, putting the sound of her new album into the "hands" of four AI programs: Amper Music, IBM's Watson Beat, Google's Magenta, and AIVA. Aptly titled I Am AI, the album will be the first of its kind to be fully composed with and totally produced by AI when it releases in May. While each AI program is unique, they generally create music by following certain parameters (genre, tempo, style).

For songwriters, the subject of artificial intelligence is an especially fraught one: Will technology that learns by watching and listening to us enhance human creativity or replace it? These initiatives, emphasizing the collaborative possibilities inherent in AI, insist that the former is possible -- from using Watson technology to inspire composers to uber-personalizing already existing tunes. THINK OF IT AS... IBM engineer Janani Mukundan calls Watson Beat a "creative assistant": It listens to existing music and scans social media chatter to find trends that could inform new work. RECENT WIN: Alex Da Kid used Watson Beat to write "Not Easy," which peaked at No. 48 on Billboard's Rock Airplay chart in 2016. A tool that can tweak an existing style, then adapt it to a new composition, drawing on the vast melody and harmony database of the Sony laboratory.

IBM's Watson has upended any romantic notions of songwriting by making it a precise formula of inspiration, emotion, musical theory and trends. The AI system's new music algorithm, called "Beat," helped producer Alex da Kid create his first solo EP of four songs, the first of which, Not Easy (feat. X Ambassadors, Elle King and Wiz Khalifa), dropped on Friday. To be clear, IBM's bot didn't write the song, but rather generated "completely new musical scores" that da Kid (who produced singles by Dr. Dre, Rhianna and others) used as inspiration for the tunes. For Da Kid, the algorithms collected music cultural trends and over the last five years, including Nobel Prize speeches, Billboard song lyrics, movie synopses and more.

IBM Watson wants to take your music to another level. Most people know Watson for its legendary performance on "Jeopardy!" But IBM's supercomputer has a host of other skills since its 2011 trivia debut. Watson's artificial intelligence can help doctors diagnose cancer, help teach a graduate level class, and even analyze characters in Harry Potter. And soon, IBM's Watson will be able to create entirely new music on a convenient app.

More than anything else, IBM's Watson supercomputer is probably best known for one thing: Appearing on Jeopardy!, the legendary TV game show, in 2011. With an internet connection and the ability the buzz in quicker than a human opponent could, Watson destroyed Jeopardy!'s longest-tenured champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in devastating fashion throughout a week of games at the IBM campus. If you were to ask the average person if they know about IBM's supercomputer, there's no doubt that an affirmative answer would involve cleaning up on a gameshow. There are now more than 30 different Watson services as part of what IBM calls the Watson Developer Cloud, including a tool that discerns tone in writing. On top of that, there are consumer tools like Chef Watson, where the supercomputer helps generate recipes based on available ingredients.