As one of the pioneers of electronic pop you’d expect Gary Numan to have some interesting opinions about the use of AI in music. In fact, in a new interview with Blitzed magazine, the 66 year old hitmaker has revealed that his next album will be “devoted entirely” to the issue.
Asked if he thought the music world should be scared, he said: "I'd say sad more than scared. The new album I'm working on now is devoted entirely to Al and how it might impact humanity. I'm fascinated and horrified in equal measure.
"As for its impact on music I fully expect Al to write great songs, it will paint extraordinary paintings, write amazing books, stunning poetry. There will be Al pop stars and actors who will become as popular, if not more so, than any human. We will go to shows where the stars are Al but appear on stage just the same (see Abba's Voyage show as a precursor to that). Everything is about to change.”
But Numan does believe that human creativity will survive - if we live long enough. "I think for quite some time the world will be amazed and entertained by all the wonders Al will create in the arts. But, ultimately, if we survive long enough, I hope and suspect that people will slowly return to human created art.
"They will once again be looking for the human element, the human experience that created that art. They will look for something real that resonates with their own lives, not a learned Al version of it.
That may just be childishly hopeful of course. We will see."
Numan, of course, made his name in the late 70s with a succession of records that took man’s relationship with technology as their main theme. Famously, the lyrics for his breakthrough hit, Are ‘Friends’ Electric, was culled from a short story Numan had written about a future society in which a character has a relationship with a robot prostitute.
The Blitzed interview didn’t mention when his new album might see light of day. Numan’s last record, Intruder, reached Number 2 in the album charts in 2021, his highest position since the early 1980s. It’s possible that the follow-up - when it finally does appear - will go all the way.
