**I do not use AI/machine learning tools in my music production or performance processes.** --- In the past, a couple of my visual projects included the use of AI-related tools. **2017** - The music video for Venetians from [[Collector]] used the output of a DCGAN trained on furniture product photos & my own previous visual art. The DCGAN was trained by my friend [Aman Tiwari](https://www.instagram.com/aman_aman_aman/). **2024** - The cover of [[Sacred Record]] features an AI-generated (and heavily edited) face of Jesus Christ. The image was originally created in 2022. The purpose was to make a general statement on the ever-presence of God intersecting all things. It is a commentary discouraging the treadmill of hysteria one is subject to through the persistent "latest fears" of the socio-political media complex. Not a pro-AI statement, but a statement against accepting the way media turns rational concerns into thought-dominating existential fears & ideologies-of-the-week. **2024** - The cover of [[Only You]] features an image of a scary dog in a beautiful field. This was generated with Stable Diffusion in 2023 and was originally intended as a stand-in for similar art that would be made later, but I decided to leave it in the final product. The other image on the cover, of a curved road at sunset, is a real photograph taken by me in 2013. As of 2025, I have made the decision to cease the use of AI tools in any future visual work. --- ## Some personal thoughts on AI (& sample usage) in music I am not interested in making or listening to music which uses AI models in its production process. This is not a blanket condemnation of people who do, but a matter of my personal drive to create & my interest in other people's creations. I have similar feelings about music which relies too heavily on samples made by other people (though this varies depending on the context of the music). Some in the current era see these kinds of views as "gatekeeping", though they are not being kept from anything. It reveals an insecurity about what they are creating, that they think other people not wanting to listen to music made with AI or samples is stopping them personally from making what they want to make. I think some of them are more interested in creating for attention rather than out of a genuine drive to create & share. If you believe in what you are making, you should make it. *"I'll listen as long as it sounds good, I don't care how it was made"* - that's good, and all the power to you. There are also those of us who do take a deep interest in the details of the creative process, seeing it as enhancing or completing our enjoyment of the creation - the word "creation" is both a verb and a noun!