The Evolution of AI Music Generators: A Deep Dive into Suno.ai
In the realm of artificial intelligence, music generation has come a long way since the primitive AI music generators of 2022. Today, we have access to advanced AI tools like Suno.ai that can turn any series of words into song lyrics. These tools have the ability to create songs on a wide range of topics, even incorporating inside jokes. This innovative technology has captured the attention of the AI community, as demonstrated by the recent viral circulation of an AI-generated song on social media.
Suno.ai, which derives its name from the Hindi word meaning “listen,” was founded in 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The brains behind this revolutionary platform are Michael Shulman, Georg Kucsko, Martin Camacho, and Keenan Freyberg, who boast previous experience working at prominent companies like Meta and TikTok. Suno.ai has quickly garnered attention from major partners, including tech giant Microsoft, which announced its integration with an earlier version of the Suno engine into Bing Chat just last December. Currently, Suno is in its v3 model, capable of generating temporally coherent two-minute songs in various genres.
While the company did not respond to our interview request at the time of writing, a profile on Suno published in Rolling Stone by Brian Hiatt sheds light on the service’s inner workings. Suno is a collaboration between OpenAI’s ChatGPT for lyric writing and Suno’s music generation model. However, some experts speculate that the music generation model may have been trained on copyrighted music recordings without proper licensing or artist permission. This has raised concerns among over 200 musical artists who recently signed an open letter by the Artist Rights Alliance, urging tech companies to refrain from using AI tools to replace human artists.
The issue of ownership and copyright surrounding the generated songs adds another layer of complexity. According to Suno’s FAQ, music generated using the free tier remains the property of Suno and can only be used for non-commercial purposes. Subscribing users, on the other hand, purportedly own the songs generated while they are subscribed to Suno’s Pro or Premier tiers, subject to the platform’s terms of service. However, it is worth noting that last year, the US Copyright Office established that purely AI-generated visual art cannot be copyrighted. While the same ruling does not yet exist for AI-generated music, it is plausible that it may become official legal policy in the future.
To gain insight into the capabilities of Suno.ai, we created an account on the platform and prompted the AI engine to generate songs about two inside jokes at Ars, our mascot Moonshark, and barbarians with CRTs. It was fascinating to witness the AI model acing the task of creating original songs for each topic. However, both songs began with the same line, “In the depths of the digital domain.” This repetition could potentially be attributed to a hidden prompt that Suno uses to instruct ChatGPT during the lyric-writing process.
Suno.ai is undeniably a thrilling tool for experimentation and represents a remarkable milestone in generative AI music. Yet, it is crucial to address the unresolved ethical concerns related to scraping musical works without the artist’s consent. Additionally, the question of potentially replacing human musicians looms large in discussions surrounding Suno. As individuals across the internet share their own Suno-generated songs, the implications of this technology become increasingly significant. AI influencer Ethan Mollick pondered, “I’ve had a song from Suno AI stuck in my head all day. Grim milestone or good one?”
Despite the excitement surrounding AI-generated music and the rapid progress witnessed in this field, there are valid concerns that need to be addressed. While the capabilities of AI tools like Suno.ai are impressive, the impact on the music industry and the rights of artists must be carefully considered. Striking a balance between technological advancement and ethical responsibility is paramount to ensure a future where AI and human creativity can coexist harmoniously.
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