Dustin Ballard

So all this to say there are a million ways to use AI.

The term AI music doesn't really clarify anything.

And in fact, even our own lawmakers don't really seem to understand this.

So there was a recent US congressional hearing on AI music where they played my mashup of AI Johnny Cash singing the song Barbie Girl, to which Representative Matt Gaetz replied, robots should not be subject to free speech.

Now, for the record, I am not a robot, but I do think this illustrates some of the confusion around this topic, which kind of leaves musicians like myself to come up with our own guardrails for how to use AI, what's right and what's wrong.

And for me, it kind of comes down to three things.

The first is, is it deceptive?

Could somebody believe this is actually real?

Next, is there artistic intent behind it?

So if you're one of these people that's mass producing AI songs, hundreds of songs, and uploading them to Spotify, your intent is probably not artistic.

And then finally, how does this affect the musicians?

And oftentimes, the victims of the songs that I create actually end up sharing those same songs on social media.

So for example, here's a clip of Snoop Dogg reacting to a mashup I made called, The Bare Necessities Are Gin and Juice.

So when I see people like Snoop and Ed Sheeran and Nicki Minaj and others sharing these things, to me it's hopefully an indication that, in my own weird way, I'm using these technologies to contribute something new to the world.

And I think at the end of the day, even with all of the many downsides of AI messing with our music, I think a lot of artists are discovering the same thing I did, which is there are ways to use AI that can actually increase creativity.

I think we could see new songs, new sounds, new styles that maybe we can't even imagine today, much like it would have been hard for somebody like John Philip Sousa to have imagined this final monstrosity I'm going to play for you.

And this goes out to all the Nickelback fans.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.