4 ms·

Something I keep thinking about is that nobody would think twice if some young musician gave an interview that said "{older artist} was a huge inspiration. thei

Something I keep thinking about is that nobody would think twice if some young musician gave an interview that said "{older artist} was a huge inspiration. their songs were fundamental in shaping how i think about the artform", nobody would be up in arms claiming that they have stolen from the elder artist. it's art inspiring other artists the way it always has. so why does it feel different when LLM ingests some music to "fundamentally shape how it 'thinks' of the artform"? i can create loads of speculation about what that difference is, but to be honest it all feels pretty post-hoc and hand-wavy.

bell-cot 1y ago
> so why does it feel different when LLM ingests ... Most-ish people are biased in favor of both "the little guy", and in favor of "artists" (whether authors, musicians, painters, or whatever).
jazzyjackson 1y ago
Because an LLM is not an artist, an artist is working to improve themselves and putting something new into the world that aligns with some desire or vision they have. The LLM lacks all desire and vision, it is a machine that can produce a trillion variations of something that sounds like Miles Davis, for example, without an ounce of intention to what it wants to do, what art it wants to make. Fundamentally the LLM is not a living thing that interacts with other living things and has an idea of how it wants to influence itself and others. it is just a printing press capable of flooding the marketplace with lookalikes and slop. [Despite my tone, I appreciate the prompt, it's a subject I'd like to write on at more length than an HN comment]
- Pet_Ant 1y ago
  Because it can produce millions of variations, the value add is in separating the wheat from the chaff. The art is in the selection. That has intention. If the first result is bad, respin.

4 ms·

Something I keep thinking about is that nobody would think twice if some young musician gave an interview that said "{older artist} was a huge inspiration. thei

by parpfish 1y ago

bell-cot 1y ago
> so why does it feel different when LLM ingests ... Most-ish people are biased in favor of both "the little guy", and in favor of "artists" (whether authors, musicians, painters, or whatever).
jazzyjackson 1y ago
Because an LLM is not an artist, an artist is working to improve themselves and putting something new into the world that aligns with some desire or vision they have. The LLM lacks all desire and vision, it is a machine that can produce a trillion variations of something that sounds like Miles Davis, for example, without an ounce of intention to what it wants to do, what art it wants to make. Fundamentally the LLM is not a living thing that interacts with other living things and has an idea of how it wants to influence itself and others. it is just a printing press capable of flooding the marketplace with lookalikes and slop. [Despite my tone, I appreciate the prompt, it's a subject I'd like to write on at more length than an HN comment]
- Pet_Ant 1y ago
  Because it can produce millions of variations, the value add is in separating the wheat from the chaff. The art is in the selection. That has intention. If the first result is bad, respin.