WOLFGANG Van Halen says Artificial Intelligence “looks dumb” and “should be putting mufflers on cars and doing menial things” rather than attempting to create art.
In an interview to promote the third album from his Mammoth project, the 34-year-old son of iconic guitarist Eddie Van Halen tells Siriux XM the rise of AI on social media has made it easier for him to stop engaging with the platforms.
“I hate it and it’s stupid,” the multi-instrumentalist told the Faction Talk station.
“I think it’s dumb. Maybe that’s just the curmudgeon in me. I think AI should be putting mufflers on cars and doing menial things that we don’t want to d0 and letting us be artistic.
“I think generative AI is stupid. It’s stealing, with art. With any type of art I think it’s dumb and I think it just looks dumb and it’s stupid.
“Even if it can replicate something perfectly, it just wasn’t done with artistic intent and with a human heart and who has feelings.”
Van Halen told host Eddie Trunk the meaning of AI had changed over the years but that didn’t mean it needed to be treated more seriously.
“I don’t know. It’s just not for me,” he said. “I don’t plan on employing any type of generative AI in anything I do for as long as I see that.
“AI – the term has lost the plot a little bit. AI has been a thing forever in terms of video games – you program artificial intelligence so the enemy you’re shooting hides behind cover.
“There’s a lot of different meanings and I think in this whole tech race it’s lost that meaning for what it is specifically. When I think of AI and how people are talking about it now, it’s stuff like generative AI where it just regurgitates …. you say ‘hey, I want an AC/DC song’ and it just regurgitates a dumb thing.
“It’s just stupid.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wolfgang discusses the impact of technology more broadly on the music industry.
“While it’s cool, the conveniences that modern technology has allowed us, I think it’s spoiled us in that we’ve lost the ability to find value in a lot of things.
“I think if we weren’t so connected all the time … nowadays music is treated like content. Streaming has really really ruined that for a lot of people. Streaming has taken away what’s special about sitting there with a record, going to a record store and picking a record because you like the cover art.”
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