Will AI fix music ... or destroy it?

As Artificial Intelligence continues its relentless spread into so many parts of all of our lives, it seems like all we can do is sit back with a mix of hope and dread and wonder where this is all going. We know we can't trust anything on social media anymore - be it photos, audio or video - though we see that many of our friends are susceptible to just about anything. Meanwhile, we may be uncomfortable with how much the electronic devices around us know about us thanks to AI, and who hasn't felt alienated when they've been trapped in an AI-automated loop when all they want to hear is a real human voice? And speaking of human voices, you may be hearing fewer of them when you listen to new songs. AI has crept into the business, becoming a common tool to write, produce and distribute music. So the next song you hear may be created and "performed" entirely by AI programming, without any real singers or musicians. Should you be alarmed? Does AI music have a soul? Can you enjoy it even if everything about it is fake? What is this going to do to the music industry? Those are the questions pondered this week by your hosts of the podcast "How We Heard It." On one hand, AI will make it easier for more people to "create" music, from musicians and singers with limited skills and resources who need help filling in songs with instrumentation, lyrics and voices to those with no music skills at all who can whip up a new song with just an idea. Like any shift in business, there will be winners and losers, and most of us will win a little and lose a little. Yet unlike past innovations - from AutoTuned vocals to electronic programs that sound like "real" instruments - there's much more at stake with AI, which reaches far beyond music. Should we be excited, afraid or both?