The industrial age increased production efficiencies and added new areas of expertise and skill to not only American life, but to the lives of people all over the world. But it has also raised questions among some (particularly those involved in the arts) about how far technology should be allowed to enter into the creative process. For example, is a handmade custom guitar really handmade if the luthier uses power tools in the building process? The purists say no, handmade guitars can only be built with a luthier's hands and hand tools. That is by no means a conclusive argument.
At what point is a farmer a farmer? If he or she uses power equipment to plow their fields, bale their hay, and harvest their crops, are they still farmers? If a photographer uses Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop to enhance their photos are they really photographers?
Such questions have cropped up in Hollywood studios, in art galleries, and in marketplaces all over the world. When is an artist an artist, and when are they not? What determines that?
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) becoming an increasingly significant part of business and everyday life, who's to say when its use is or isn't appropriate? As it becomes more integrated into our culture, some companies let their consumers know up front that it's being used. For example, when providing summaries of customer reviews of a product, Amazon posts a statement that reads, “AI-generated from the text of customer reviews.”
In the production of music, special effects and loops have been used for years by musical artists to enhance their recordings. This is especially true with drum loops and beat tracks. So, there's the production end of recording technologies to think about as well as the songwriting end.
When the Beatles recorded their first songs, recording technologies were pretty crude and you could only record up to four simultaneous tracks at a time. With the equipment limitations that existed, what they did with their early recordings is incredible. You can read more about that here: Recording Practices of the Beatles.
In 2023 Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr released a Beatles song that would have never been released were it not for AI technologies. Watch the Youtube video of how Now and Then finally became a reality.
Inspiration and Healing
Can God use AI assisted content to inspire and touch people's hearts? Ed Wilson believes so. Recently I conducted an interview with Ed (a Sacramento-based musician and songwriter) to learn how his musical efforts have been impacted by today's emerging technologies:
Rich - Ed, we're talking about songwriting, which is something we both do and enjoy. But before we get into the specifics of that, tell us a little about your musical background. You've played bass guitar for a number of years—for as long as I have known you. What else do you do or have you done with music?
Ed - My music “career” started many years ago. My father, as Seventh-day Adventist minister, and my mother—a church school receptionist, started me down a road where I developed a lifelong love for music. As a child I sang for church services, Vacation Bible School, and pretty much any church or school function I could. I took several years of piano lessons, but piano didn’t light a fire under me till several years later. I believe it was when I was seven or eight years old that I sang “The Holy City” on the main stage at the Oregon Camp meeting, accompanied by a well known recorded pianist named Donna Kline. I was so short I had to stand on a chair behind the pulpit. I eventually moved on to sing with school choirs and played trombone for bands, all the way through my senior year at Portland Adventist Academy.
Then music kind of took a back seat to dating, college, and being 20-something. In my thirties I joined a group of church members and friends who started an Adventist church plant in Sacramento where I still live now. While helping to build up that church with a startup group of a dozen lay leaders and a pastor, I started singing with the worship team.
Oh, I should mention that while music took a break, I bought my first guitar and taught myself the basic chords to some of the easier and early praise songs. Our worship team at the church plant had an accomplished bass player, but he couldn't always be there. So, one Sabbath afternoon with a bunch of friends just singing and playing instruments, someone had a bass guitar that I got to play around with. With my basic understanding of strings and frets, I was able to play along with most of the songs.
So I bought a bass and became the backup bass player. That was in the mid 1990’s, and with people coming and going—as often happens with church plants, I ended up being “the bass player." So pretty much every weekend I was with the music team playing progressive Christian music, along with many of the standard praise songs of that time. As personnel continued to change, my son and I essentially took over leadership of the worship team. Today I continue to support worship teams with my bass playing at Carmichael Seventh-day Adventist church, which is where I met you.
Rich - Ed, from what you've told me, your life has been greatly enriched by music in various ways, which is awesome. Your efforts have been a blessing to many in our church. Recently you started experimenting with a new tool that, as you put it, has greatly broadened your musical horizons. Tell us what that is and how it has impacted your engagement with music.
Ed - You know, AI is a pretty powerful tool, but that’s all it is—a tool. The real inspiration, the part that makes a song feel alive, is a gift from the ultimate Creator. I believe every song starts with that spark—whether it’s a story that won’t let go, an emotion that needs a voice, or just something bigger than me working through the process. AI helps me with structure, rhyme schemes, and different phrasings, but it doesn’t give a song its heart. That comes from above.
I think of AI like an assistant who can throw out ideas and help me shape them, but I’m the one who decides what feels right. The storytelling, the message, the soul—that’s my part. Technology makes things faster, but creativity? That’s something deeper. And when a song finally comes together, it’s not because AI wrote it for me—it’s because I took that gift of inspiration and turned it into something real.
Rich - You have stated the challenge well. The link below is to a song you recently wrote titled, “Let It Be Your Song.” What was your process for writing this?
Ed - Rich, this song started with a conversation I had with my church pastor. We were talking about using a couple of my songs for Easter services, and he asked me about my inspiration. That question really stuck with me because, like I mentioned earlier, every song I write—whether it’s a worship song or something else—comes from the ultimate Creator.
Even before AI ever got involved, the phrase ‘Let it be Your song, not mine’ just kept running through my mind. The hook, the title, the heart of the song—it was all there. I couldn’t shake it, and I knew it was something I needed to put to music.
Later, as I was putting my thoughts into words—both in my own head and while explaining it to ChatGPT—the rest of the song started falling into place. It felt less like I was writing it and more like I was just bringing it to life. The whole thing is really a prayer of gratitude, recognizing that every melody, every word, is a gift. My part is just to shape it and share it.
AI helped fine-tune some lines and structure, but the heart of the song? That was already there. Some songs feel like work, but this one? It felt like it was meant to be.
Here's a song I recently wrote: Let it Be Your Song
Rich - Every musician has to figure out what works best for them and the audiences they're trying to reach. Regardless of what tools they end up using, every true farmer eventually reaps a harvest, and every true luthier ends up building guitars that inspire guitarists and audiences alike. Ed, you've found a way to feed your calling to write songs and people are being blessed by what you do. Thank you for sharing your story.
Rich DuBose interviewed Edward Wilson in Northern California | pdf version of Navigating the Arts Today
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