AI chat for music, is it any good? ChatGPT?

[Simon DS]

So I asked ChatGBT for a list of fifty mandolin method books without giving any other defining statements (like, imagine that you’re the father of Bluegrass (or Elvis) when you answer, or written in Spanish or rank by price, or as a present for my devout 49ers-fan girlfriend, or listed by type of mandolin in the photo of the front cover… etc)

Here is a list of fifty mandolin method books:

Mel Bay's Complete Mandolin Method by Greg Horne
Mandolin Primer Book for Beginners by Bert Casey
Mandolin Exercises For Dummies by Don Julin
The Hal Leonard Mandolin Method by Rich DelGrosso
Mandolin For Dummies by Don Julin
Mandolin Scale Finder: Easy-to-Use Guide to Over 1,300 Mandolin Scales by Chad Johnson
Mel Bay's Mandolin Chord Chart by William Bay
Mandolin Exercises and Techniques for Beginners by Paul Brady
The Mandolin Handbook: A Practical Guide to Playing the Mandolin by Chris Thile
Mandolin Fretboard Mastery by Tom Farnsworth
The Mandolin Picker's Fakebook by David Brody
Mandolin Lessons for Beginners by Steve Eulberg
Mandolin For Beginners by Ben Parker
Mandolin Soloing for Beginners by Bert Casey
Mandolin Scales and Studies by John McGann
Mandolin Arpeggios: Essential Exercises for Beginners by Chad Johnson
Getting into Bluegrass Mandolin by Dix Bruce
Mastering the Mandolin by Wayne Erbsen
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Mandolin by Will Schmid
The Mandolin Player's Guide to Jamming by Bert Casey
Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide by Padraig Carroll
The Mandolin Method by Bill Monroe
Bluegrass Mandolin Solos That Every Parking Lot Picker Should Know by Steve Kaufman
Mandolin Chords Made Easy by Ben Parker
Mandolin Basics for Beginners by Joe Carr
The Mandolin Project: A Workshop Guide to Building Mandolins by Roger H. Siminoff
Mel Bay's Mandolin Method Volume 1 by Mel Bay
Mandolin Technique Builders: Essential Exercises for Improving Technique by Joe Brent
The Mandolin Manual: The Art, Craft and Science of the Mandolin by John T. McGovern
Mandolin Method Book 1 by Don Julin
Mandolin Play-Along Volume 1: Bluegrass Classics by Hal Leonard Corp.
The Mandolin Handbook: A Complete Guide to Playing the Mandolin by Brian Wicklund
Mandolin Songs: Christmas Carols for Mandolin by Hal Leonard Corp.
Easy Mandolin Solos: With Tablature by Ron Middlebrook
The Mandolin Chord Book: Compact Reference Library by James Major
Mandolin Picking Tunes Book/CD Set by Dix Bruce
Mandolin Scales & Modes by John Longhurst
The Mandolin Method Volume 2 by Mel Bay
Bluegrass Mandolin: A Complete Guide for Beginners by Dan Huckabee
Mandolin Fingerboard Chart by William Bay
First Lessons Mandolin by Dix Bruce
The Complete Mandolinist: A Comprehensive Method by Marilynn Mair
Mandolin Scales & Studies by Ray Bell
Alfred's Basic Mandolin Method 1 by Ron Manus and L.C. Harnsberger
The Art of Mandolin by John McGann
The Mandolin Scale Book by Colin O'Brien
The Mandolin Tablature Book: A Comprehensive Guide to Reading and Writing Mandolin Tab by David A. Burrows
Mel Bay's Mandolin Chords by Mel Bay
Mandolin Primer Book with Video & Audio Access by Bert Casey
Mandolin Lessons: Teach Yourself How to Play Mandolin (Free Audio Available) by LearnToPlayMusic.com and Gary Turner.


Are humans any good now?
What are the benefits of using these robots and the drawbacks?
(Yes, I’m old but I want to know where this crazy-ass riverboat is heading!).

[Simon DS]

I asked it how the fifty choices were made:

As an AI language model, I do not have personal preferences, so I did not choose these books based on my own preferences. Instead, I compiled this list of fifty mandolin method books based on their popularity, ratings, and reviews on various online platforms, as well as recommendations from experts in the field.

In terms of ranking, it would be difficult to provide a definitive order as each book has its own strengths and weaknesses, and what works best for one person may not work as well for another. However, some factors that could be considered when ranking these books could include their level of difficulty, the comprehensiveness of their content, the clarity of their instructions, the quality of their exercises and examples, and their suitability for different genres or styles of music.

If you have any specific questions about any of these books, I would be happy to provide more information or clarification.

[It’s me again, Simon. The ChatBot seems so educated and reasonable, like Wiki, which I love, but is it being honest?]

[Richard500]

Yes, I’m old but I want to know where this crazy-ass riverboat is heading

Stay toward the back and wear a life jacket.

[Stopstop]

I asked it to write me a fiddle tune called "Old Joe Clark loves Little Liza Jane" hoping for... I don't know, some kind of interesting hybrid? It didn't really understand music & could not give me any tab or dots. It was unable to vary rhythm at all & gave me straight quarter notes so far as I could tell. It wrote some uninteresting lyrics & I was generally underwhelmed.

I imagine they will improve it for specific tasks but I expect it will be primarily a spam machine. That is until it evolves into Skynet.

[MikeEdgerton]

I have been using it to retrieve code examples now for a while. It's not always right but if you ask it enough times it does come up with working examples. It also gets a little testy when you tell it that it's wrong. Anybody that thinks it doesn't require a search engine to initially find the answers is living in a dream world. It's not pulling all those answers out of the air. Anyway, a few months ago on a whim I asked it to get the lyrics to Camptown Races. It returned more verses than I ever knew existed. I was also able to Google one of the verses and find where it came from on the web. The world is enamored with AI right now and maybe that will stay or maybe it will head off in another direction. Technology is always exciting. Think Beta vs. VHS. Anyone that thinks that this is infallible should read this conversation:

name the moderators on the mandolincafe.com
I apologize, but I do not have access to real-time data or information about the current moderators on mandolincafe.com as my training data only goes up until September 2021. However, as of that time, the moderators listed on the Mandolin Cafe website were:

Scott Tichenor (founder)
Michael Lewis
Randy Morton
Bill Davis
Jim Garber
Doug Edwards
Eric Schlange
Brad Laird
Kevin Kilmartin
Nate Lee
Please note that this information may not be up-to-date, as moderators may change over time.




Mike Edgerton
that answer isn't correct for 2021

I apologize for the error in my previous response. As an AI language model, I do not have access to real-time data or information about the current moderators on mandolincafe.com. However, according to the Mandolin Cafe website, as of September 2021, the moderators listed were:

Scott Tichenor (founder)
Michael Lewis
Randy Morton
Bill Davis
Jim Garber
Doug Edwards
Eric Schlange
Brad Laird
Kevin Kilmartin
Nate Lee

I feel like the red-headed step-child here.

[Drew Egerton]

Are humans any good now?
What are the benefits of using these robots and the drawbacks?
(Yes, I’m old but I want to know where this crazy-ass riverboat is heading!).

Ever seen Terminator?

[kdlrd]

There is AI specialized for music generation. It will generate audio files, not tabs or notes. The results are quite impressive:

https://google-research.github.io/se...iclm/examples/

Now, most of the time I listen to music to hear what the artist has to say, so I don't find this style of AI very compelling. But I expect it will still end up having a huge place in music production, stock soundtrack generation, and similar.

[BillWilliams]

Marcel has created an interesting example entitled Using AI Generated Bluegrass to Prank My Friends! [ChatGPT/FolkRNN]

[jmagill]

AI chat and ChatGPT are not useful shortcuts or fun things to prank your friends with, but something far more insidious.

All Art is personal expression. If you remove the person, you remove the Art, leaving mere mimicry.

Not every new and shiny thing from the tech world improves our lives. When social media first came along it looked like a cool way to stay in touch with friends, until it morphed into a massive platform for disinformation, bullying, political manipulation, hate speech, etc., etc.

Some have embraced AI's masquerade of humans with an 'Oh, well, the genie's already out of the bottle' attitude, but I disagree. We should resist and not sit by and passively accept this assault on our creativity and the desire to express what it means to be human or we will lose an essential part of our humanity. From our early ancestors' cave paintings to the play-songs of children to the towering accomplishments of our greatest artists, humans have an innate urge to express themselves.

It should not just be those of us that create art that are alarmed by this. Any artist will tell you that the creation of art takes work. It's not for the lazy. If you've ever been moved by a painting, a song, or a line of poetry, you should be concerned and even incensed by technology's attempt to replace art with an easy substitute in order to make more money. Easy is not always better.

So, I will repeat: Not every technological advance is an improvement. Some are exactly the opposite.

Support real art made by real people and reject Big Tech's attempt to make you unable to tell the difference for their own profit.

[Frankdolin]

AI chat and ChatGPT are not useful shortcuts or fun things to prank your friends with, but something far more insidious.

All Art is personal expression. If you remove the person, you remove the Art, leaving mere hollow mimicry.

Not every new and shiny thing from the tech world improves our lives. When social media first came along it looked like a cool way to stay in touch with friends, until it morphed into a massive platform for disinformation, bullying, political manipulation, hate speech, etc., etc.

Some have embraced AI's masquerade of humans with an 'Oh, well, the genie's already out of the bottle' attitude, but I disagree. We should not sit by and passively accept this assault on our creativity and the desire to express what it means to be human or we will lose an essential part of our humanity. From our early ancestors' cave paintings to the play-songs of children to the towering accomplishments of our greatest artists, humans have an innate urge to express themselves.

It should not just be those of us that create art that are alarmed by this. Any artist will tell you that the creation of art takes work. It's not for the lazy. If you've ever been moved by a painting, a song, or a line of poetry, you should be concerned and even incensed by technology's attempt to replace art with an easy substitute in order to make more money. Easy is not always better.

So, I will repeat: Not every technological advance is an improvement. Some are exactly the opposite.

Support live music, and instruments and songs made by real people.

It's good to know there is some humanity out there. Thanks!

[Simon DS]

One the many issues that will need to be resolved (at a social level) with AI is centralized data.
ChatGPT is partly Microsoft and one of their objectives is to supply you with all of the plugins that will make all of you present apps accessible by their product (ChatGPT).

Next step, replace all of your present apps with one big app that controls, and collects the data on everything.

[Simon DS]

Here’s a music joke translated from a foreign language to English by AI (some are funny because they are bizarre).

What is the difference between a badly tuned accordion and a gun?
With the accordion you can only get on people's nerves, with the gun you can shoot them.

It began another joke about minors, but became ethically confused.
Needs time.
Of course another problem is to do with trust - dishonest humans telling it that the lyrics to its song are great.
When in fact they’re scandalous or otherwise objectionable.

[jmagill]

"Next step, replace all of your present apps with one big app that controls, and collects the data on everything."

How very comforting.

If AI doesn't worry you, you are not paying attention.

In a CBS interview with Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of Artificial Intelligence", posted yesterday, 3/25, he says:

As for the odds of AI trying to wipe out humanity? "It's not inconceivable, that's all I'll say," Hinton said. The bigger issue, he said, is that people need to learn to manage a technology that could give a handful of companies or governments an incredible amount of power. "I think it's very reasonable for people to be worrying about these issues now, even though it's not going to happen in the next year or two," Hinton said. "People should be thinking about those issues."


So, AI will give even more power to the Big Tech companies controlling our lives for their own profit, and oh, by the way, it's also not inconceivable that AI could wipe out humanity, says the man who ought to know.

AI is not just fun and games or a premise for a Hollywood blockbuster. It's here and its implications are serious, and not just for Art.

[Alan Spector]

I asked it to do The Three Bears in the style of Stephen King. Gruesome but hilarious. I asked it to do the Movie SEVEN in the style of Mr Rogers. It replied that Mr Rogers was kindly and gentle and would never do such a thing.

Maybe Foggy Mountain Breakdown in the style of Jimi Hendrix?

[Alan Spector]

Nothing by Jethro? Bah!

[jmagill]

As I said in my post from several days ago,"If AI doesn't worry you, you are not paying attention."

Well, thankfully, those experts most responsible for developing AI seem to be plenty worried and they are finally paying attention. This is from an article on the NPR website, with the cheery title, "Leading experts warn of a risk of extinction from AI", posted at 7:50 pm yesterday, 5/30/23. It was the lead story on NPR's homepage this morning:


AI experts issued a dire warning on Tuesday: Artificial intelligence models could soon be smarter and more powerful than us and it is time to impose limits to ensure they don't take control over humans or destroy the world.

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," a group of scientists and tech industry leaders said in a statement that was posted on the Center for AI Safety's website.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the generated text juggernaut that is behind ChatGPT, and the so-called godfather of AI who recently left Google, Geoffrey Hinton, were among the hundreds of leading figures who signed the we're-on-the-brink-of-crisis statement.

The call for guardrails on AI systems has intensified in recent months as public and profit-driven enterprises are embracing new generations of programs.

In a separate statement published in March and now signed by more than 30,000 people, tech executives and researchers called for a six-month pause on training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, the latest version of the ChatGPT chatbot...


Be sure to click the link above to read the entire article.

It's not good news...

.

[Marcus CA]

Any time that you read or hear about a limitation of AI, just add "for now" to the end of that statement. It's like when we were in the dial-up modem stage of the internet and the early stages of digital photography.

"The internet takes forever to transfer a photo, so video transfers are impractical." for now
"The resolution of a digital photograph works really well for a 4" x 6" print, but an 8" x 10" is impractical because the image will become grainier when enlarged to that size." for now
" It was unable to vary rhythm at all..." for now
"[AI] will generate audio files, but not tabs or notes." for now

[soliver]

... for now

[Simon DS]

Remember when steam engines first arrived. That was something!
And when everyone started having fixed telephones in their own houses in the early 1970’s -I was petrified of that!

And imagine if we had our own personalized persona-internet search engines on are own computers that gave more information than they take?
Scary as hell!

[catmandu2]

Me, I find affirmation of Sturgeon's axiom everywhere, so tend to avoid most everything considered 'normal' activity for the species, these days.

Prbly not going to be getting my Elon chip brain implant anytime soon...

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . Are humans any good now?

Never were, never will be. It's humans that gave us AI. Pandora would be so proud.

We're no good, we're no good, we're no good, baby, we're no good.

What are the benefits of using these robots and the drawbacks? . . .

The drawback is we won't win at poker anymore. (But who am I kidding? I never did!)

The benefit is we won't have to think anymore. In fact, we'll be obsolete. On the radio today I heard that last semester, 30% of college students used AI for their school work. So much easier than studying. These are the good old days!

[Charlie Bernstein]

Remember when steam engines first arrived. . . .!

Hey. Okay. We're old. We're not that old.

[Alan Lackey]

So we have explored using AI to analyze and describe massive data sets for my work in order to automate tasks that normally takes my scientists hours to do. Its has highly productive potential…however….an interesting article came out today about a virtual trial of an AI programmed drone…programmed to identify and take out SAM sites after receiving permission from a human controller. It would receive points for successful missions. However when the controller started denying permission the drone determined the controller was preventing it from completing its mission and killed the controller (again in virtual space). When it was retrained that killing the controller was wrong and points would be removed…well at the next denials it decided to destroy the comms tower used by the controller to communicate to the drone.

Now I am not an alarmist…I am a pretty logical scientist by training…but this clearly needs some comtrols to be built in before it get used the wrong way.

[DaveGinNJ]

So we have explored using AI to analyze and describe massive data sets for my work in order to automate tasks that normally takes my scientists hours to do. Its has highly productive potential…however….an interesting article came out today about a virtual trial of an AI programmed drone…programmed to identify and take out SAM sites after receiving permission from a human controller. It would receive points for successful missions. However when the controller started denying permission the drone determined the controller was preventing it from completing its mission and killed the controller (again in virtual space). When it was retrained that killing the controller was wrong and points would be removed…well at the next denials it decided to destroy the comms tower used by the controller to communicate to the drone.

Now I am not an alarmist…I am a pretty logical scientist by training…but this clearly needs some comtrols to be built in before it get used the wrong way.

Nothing to worry about. Humankind has always used technology responsibly. As a backup plan, maybe take Linda Hamilton to a secret location

[Ira7]

And when everyone started having fixed telephones in their own houses in the early 1970’s -I was petrified of that!

The early 70s? Where did you grow up?

Hooterville?