When AI tools were first introduced, much was made of the coming educational apocalypse, as people assumed students would just cheat their way through school. At the Berklee College of Music, it’s the students who are worried that AI is ruining their education. Futurism reports that students at the prestigious music school are protesting a course focused on the use of generative AI in music making and songwriting that was introduced to the course catalogue for the upcoming semester.
The course in question is an elective called “Bots and Beats: AI and the Future of Songwriting.” Per the course description, the class aims to “explore how music makers can use the latest AI tools to expand their craft, and how to avoid using those same tools in a way that hinders their craft,” and examine “the impact of AI on the music industry (both helpful and harmful), and on the future careers of music makers, as well as the role of musicians and creators in a society with abundant access to music creation.”
On its face, the premise of the course seems reasonable enough. AI is undoubtedly impacting the music industry. Earlier this year, Rolling Stone reported that AI music tools are becoming an increasingly common part of the production process, in part to generate samples that avoid licensing and rights issues.
But the objection of students seems to stem primarily from the fact that the course will task them with “generating original lyrics, melodies, songs, and recordings in collaboration with AI.” In an online petition, which has amassed signatures from more than 425 people, the students protesting the course argued, “AI models like ChatGPT that are being promoted by the Berklee Songwriting Department steal the art of 10’s of 1000’s of artists and rot the essence of the industry and have devastating consequences on the environment all to create facsimiles of real human art.” They are calling on the school to disband the course entirely, and said, “There is no place for generative AI at art school.”
Berklee, in a statement to local Boston news station WBZ, said, “As an artist-first institution at the forefront of contemporary music and performing arts education, Berklee has a responsibility to prepare our students to navigate technologies impacting the creative industries. We will continue to do so, in keeping with our guiding principles.”
In a comment on the petition page, a person identifying themselves as a former Berklee student wrote, “If administration wants us to be prepared for the future, they should focus on helping connect students with jobs after college. Not teaching tools that steal from artists and make producers irrelevant.”
It should be noted that the AI-driven course is being taught by musician Ben Camp, according to the school’s course catalogue. While it is not disclosed on Camp’s professor profile page on the school’s website, per their LinkedIn, they are an advisor to Suno, a generative AI music creation platform. If you’d like to revel in a little irony regarding Camp’s course, he also teaches a class called “Stealing from the Masters.” Seems fitting for a person who works for a company that was sued by basically every major record label for scraping their songs and was accused of committing “the biggest theft in music history.”
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