What AI Can’t Replace: The Muscles That Matter
Lately I’ve been thinking and discussing with other songwriters and composers a lot about AI and the implications for musicians and creative people. There's certainly a lot of chatter about what AI can do, but not so much about what it might undo, how it might already be "un-teaching" us in profound ways.
When I started learning guitar, figuring out how to play a new chord was a challenge. It took time. My fingers had to stretch and fumble their way into place. But that effort wasn’t wasted — it was a lesson first, and then a marvelous discovery when I began to understand what I could do with that chord in relation to the other chords I was learning. So it was a physical challenge first, and then through frustration and repetition, it literally became an important part of what I do, who I was, and thankfully, who still I am.
I used to be great with directions, had an innate sense of where things were and could follow my nose and find my way. Now usually – and often against my own instincts – I follow Google Maps on my phone. It just seems easier and takes away any uncertainty. But I sense it’s costing me something, and that is my own ability to figure out where I'm going. I am weakening a part of myself, and eventually may loose it altogether.
I’m not anti-AI. I think these tools can be incredible. But I also think there’s something irreplaceable about challenging ourselves. About following our own instincts and working through something that's hard. About wrestling with our own limitations, making mistakes and then the sense of growth and satisfaction when we find our way, whether it's creatively, or to a friend's house in a part of town we have never been in before.
If we outsource all of that — all the reaching and stretching, fumbling and learning – are the machines our tools, or is it the other way round? Whose creative life is it if each of us is not finding our own way, but the destination is being handed to us on a silicon platter?
I'll leave it there and would love to hear your thoughts.
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Analog v digital, live drums v drum machines, tweeking and turning v sampling, endless vocal passes v auto-correct, precise performance v copy & paste. Each dichotomy produced new techniques and new artistry but in each case what I feel was lost was that magical ingredient of creativity.....MISTAKES. The "Oh Fuck!!!...let's do it again...."That one was close"...."come on, boys, we can do it better"...It also has reduced the "community of musicians" to "ONE". The sounds are immaculate but the dirt has been swept away unless you desire "dirt". Then you can insert itas if "Dirt" is a sample.
still, I am speaking as a 75 year old musician who was "THERE". Youth has no past to reflect upon.
Being someone in my 30s, I really appreciate this perspective, Lonnie. I’ve played in bands, and I’ve also done the solo thing with a full Ableton Push setup — looping, layering, tweaking every detail on my own timeline. And while that kind of control is powerful (and addictive), there’s just something irreplaceable about being in a room with other musicians. Like you said — that human element, the shared messiness, the “let’s try it again” magic. I think you’re right that we’ve lost some of that, but I also think we’re seeing a hunger for it again. More and more artists seem to be chasing that organic, imperfect sound on purpose. And hopefully, the future holds space for both — the immaculate and the messy, the solo and the collective.
I do believe there is, once again, a shift back towards that “original concept”, what I call
This idea of AI weakening your fundamentals and making us less tolerant of difficulty is something talked about a lot in the programming circles I'm in, which largely is anti-AI for coding. It's similar to me how its being used in education, where students are using AI to write essays, but spectacularly missing the point. It's not the product, it's the process. If I made a robot to play scales perfectly on the piano, I'd have perfect scales, but my own fundamentals wouldn't get any stronger.
Bob wrote something relevant here: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2025/07/15/passion-viewpoint-craft/
Yeah, a good take.