WN #22

What to Make of AI Music Generation

Playing around with AI is the best way to learn about AI, and Suno’s AI music generator is one of the most fun tools to play with. There are plenty of potential use cases for educators, but it's also right in the thick of broader ethical discussions over AI’s impact on creative industries and intellectual property rights. So should you use it? That’s ultimately up to you, but it’s worth taking a closer look at the landscape.

Like other AI companies, Suno and its competitor, Udio, are being sued for using copyrighted material to train their models. And it’s not just the music industry that’s pushing back, the infiltration of AI into spaces occupied by human artists leaves many with an uneasy feeling. That said, one could also point out that human artists “train” on the work of others as well, and, like AI, use it to provide the foundation for their own content, making this more of an argument about scale than anything, especially considering that the artistic purity of music creation that many people latch onto has long been absent from large swathes of the music industry.

If A-list artists and labels can put together huge teams of songwriters and producers (who they often have no problem exploiting) to whip out a dozen or more highly-processed songs a day to choose from, is it that much of a moral stretch to give similar access to the aspiring artist who works tirelessly at their day job to make enough money to support their dream? Just because a computer spits out a melody doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of room for an artist to play with that idea and use their talents and expertise to make it their own. AI works best when it augments human talent, not replaces it.

Then again, if the current, over-processed state of the music industry leaves a bad taste in your mouth, pushing that out to everyone on a massive scale (and cutting out the human element even more) doesn’t feel like a healthy solution either. 

I’m not here to tell you to use Suno or not, that’s up to you. But I will tell you that AI music technology is here, it’s not going back in the bag, and let’s be honest, the music industry is likely already using it, even while they fight it (though not every artist is opposed). The technology will certainly evolve from where it is now as industry players find ways to join in on the action in ways that, at least on the surface, feel a bit more fair to everyone. Think of the music streaming arc – we are in the Napster days. But companies like YouTube are already fishing for licensing deals with large record companies for their own AI music tools, and Universal Music Group recently struck a deal with AI startup SoundLabs to use AI voice-cloning technology with their artists. Soon, even those initially opposed to the technology will find it integrated into the way they discover, create, and experience music.

For educators, our goal isn’t to launch our music careers or make a quick buck on the backs of others, but to utilize the power of music to augment our lessons and enhance the student experience. So here are some tips and ideas for using Suno and similar AI music technology in your classroom, if you choose to do so:

Tips:

• Understand that the technology in its current form is controversial. If you use it for class, you should be prepared to address and discuss ethical implications with students (feel free to use some of the resources provided above!).

• You can have Suno generate lyrics for you based on your prompt, but it’s basically just throwing your request over to ChatGPT and giving you the results (this is how many AI tools work). For more control, there’s an option to enter custom lyrics.

• The custom lyrics option means you can also collaborate with ChatGPT or (my preference for writing tasks) Claude to craft your lyrics, then import them into Suno. You might have different elements or techniques you want it to incorporate, and working directly in a chatbot will give you more control of the output.

• If you want to improve or modify your lyrics with a chatbot but aren’t sure how to best go about it, employ chain-of-thought prompting. For example, rather than just asking it to make the song more catchy, ask it to explain its process for doing so. Not only does this help the chatbot respond to the prompt in a more careful and thoughtful manner (like asking a student to show their work), but it also gives you more insight into strategies and techniques that you can then explore further or expand upon. Is it modifying the lyrics by varying the rhyming techniques? Ask it to produce a list of more of these types of techniques, then pick and choose which ones specifically you’d like to see more of.

Uses:

• Create a song that helps students remember a specific formula, framework, or process. Got an end-of-class routine that you want students to follow? Set it to a psychedelic funk track.

• Incorporate key vocabulary into a song to give students another way to hear the words in context, or focus on a specific word. These work great to fill the void during transitions.

• Create a narrative hook for a lesson or unit you are about to embark on, like this intro to a unit on the Age of Exploration.

• Worried that students will view your songs as corny? Make them the creators! Have students create their own songs about the topics, themes, skills, and ideas you cover in class, then have the class vote for their favorite. Encourage students to call out hallucinations and inaccuracies if they see them.

• Work on prompting skills. Let students craft their lyrics in a chatbot, but limit them to 5 prompts (or a set number of your choosing). Have students reflect on the prompts they used and their impact on the output.

• Compare a human-created song side-by-side with an AI-created one. Use it as a jumping off point into a conversation on the strengths, weaknesses, and ethics of AI music generation or AI generation as a whole.

I understand that not everyone feels ready to bring this technology into their classroom. That said, AI music generators like Suno offer exciting possibilities for enhancing education, from creating memorable learning aids to fostering student creativity. While ethical concerns persist, these tools are likely here to stay, even though their final form is sure to evolve. If we choose to use them, our challenge is to harness their potential responsibly, using them to augment our teaching while engaging students in critical discussions about AI's role in creativity and society. By doing so, we can prepare students for a future where human ingenuity and artificial intelligence increasingly intersect.

*Note: Suno is free to use up to a limit (10 songs per day). For increased (free) usage, Suno has a Suno x Teachers program aimed at educators.

OpenAI Moves Towards “Content Partnerships”

OpenAI announced a strategic content partnership with TIME, adding to the growing number of media companies that they have recently struck deals with (Reddit, The Atlantic, News Corp, etc.), giving OpenAI access to their content in exchange for linked citations back to the source, along with company use of OpenAI products. These types of partnerships help OpenAI alleviate some ethical concerns while laying stepping stones in their likely quest to compete with Google Search.

Google’s Growth Academy for AI in Education Startups

Google is running a growth academy for AI in Education startups from various regions around the world. Overreliance on AI from Western companies can lead to ill-fitting products that exacerbate the risks of techno-colonialism, but the academy will help companies like African startup Kwame build, market, and grow AI tools with a focus on the unique needs of their regions and cultures. On a broader scale, Google sees tremendous potential for AI in developing countries, if it’s done the right way, of course.

Bringing Words to Life

The rise of AI-narrated audiobooks is here. And while some worry about the influx of “good enough” audio narration that puts professional narrators out of work and lacks the same human touch and quality, the technology also presents new opportunities for many resource-constrained authors to reach their audience, including translation into various languages. As a teacher, I’m also excited for the numerous new opportunities for students to hear their words brought to life by a professional, natural-sounding voice.

📌 Google’s “AI Overview” Feature

Google recently rolled out an AI Overview feature that you may have noticed sometimes pops up at the top of your search results. These AI-generated summaries can be helpful, but also sometimes do weird AI things. Either way, students will be seeing, and likely using, these overviews, so (A) heads up, and (B) it’s something that’s probably worth getting somewhat familiar with.  Speaking of students, Google also announced that teens can now access Gemini through their school Google accounts, but this is turned off by default and must be enabled by school or district network admin.

📌 Claude Takes Another Leap Forward

Claude got yet another upgrade. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is now the most intelligent Claude model and is available to all users. It rivals GPT-4o and even surpasses it in some areas, and also has a new feature, “Artifacts”, which allows it to write and execute code, draft text documents, and more in a window alongside your conversation (see “The Lab” section below). Pro and Team users can also now organize “Projects,” where they can upload their own files (up to a 500-page book’s worth of words), set custom instructions for Claude specific to the project, and collaborate with team members.

📌 Comparing AI Models

ChatGPT is well known by now, but I’m still surprised how few people have even heard of, let alone tried, the other AI models out there. Poe is a great site/app that lets you play around with them all in one place, and even within the same chat. You can also try out models in the LMSYS Chatbot Arena, which pits two anonymous models against each other and asks for your vote on which one did better with the prompt(s) you gave it. They use these votes to help rank the models on the Chatbot Arena Leaderboard.

Claude’s New “Artifacts” Feature

As mentioned in “The Bulletin Board” above, Claude has a nifty new feature available to free users called “Artifacts.” To use this feature, you’ll need to turn it on in your settings (under “Feature Preview”). Once enabled, Claude can write and execute code, draft text documents, and more in a window alongside your conversation.

Here it is drafting & updating a student-facing document on the right as we hash out a history project on the left:

A Simple, Yet Powerful Prompt for All

One of the most valuable AI prompts for educators, or really anyone, is just 3 words:

Having a tool that can immediately point out potential blindspots and alternative ways of thinking is such a simple yet powerful use case.

More Ideas…

Stanford’s CRAFT initiative (Classroom-Ready Resources About AI for Teaching) is designed by the Stanford Graduate School of Education in conjunction with real classroom teachers. Its website offers several AI literacy resources you can bring to your classroom.

• Among the first things President Biden did after being shown ChatGPT for the first time was to have it write a song about a legal dispute between Delaware and New Jersey in the style of Bruce Springsteen.

• AI Al Michaels (whoa that looks weird when you write it out) will narrate custom highlight reels for you during the upcoming Summer Olympics.

• Researchers are training AI to detect sarcasm.

• AI-generated emojis are coming to iPhones.

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