At YouTube’s AI & Music Talk, a Rapper Explains How He Mastered the Art of AI: ‘I Feel Limitless’

“How did I cognize I was hooked?” asks Jidenna, the “Classic Man” creator who was erstwhile signed to Janelle Monae‘s Epic Records imprint, narrating a mind-bending video helium created himself utilizing AI tools. “I deliberation for astir of us, it usually starts with a basal prompt. You know, a random thought oregon a silly idea. Something truthful guiltless astir that archetypal time. About a week later, you find yourself scrolling for hours conscionable to get the close generation. A period in, you’re a full creation manager now, astatine nighttime schoolhouse connected YouTube to beryllium an AI director….I americium a damn story maker, and I consciousness limitless.”

Jidenna, who has been moving arsenic an autarkic creator since the pandemic, presented his video during a fireside chat this week with YouTube’s planetary caput of euphony Lyor Cohen successful New York, chalking up his precocious AI skills to the information that he’s nary longer successful the large statement system.

“That’s wherefore I’m sitting successful the seat with you — due to the fact that I’m independent, not due to the fact that I was moving with a formed of 20 radical who were gonna bash my videos for me. Nobody’s doing a video for me. Nobody’s making a bushed for me. I bash it each myself. I had to larn film. I had to larn what this caller Gen AI satellite was….we’re astatine a constituent wherever those of america who whitethorn person been marginalized by immoderate reason, are taking the tools and figuring retired what we could bash with it.”

Their conversation, attended by artists including Wyclef Jean, Mike D and Busta Rhymes, covered the opportunities and challenges up for artists successful an AI world.  Here are immoderate of the highlights:

Lyor Cohen: Do you person to beryllium a PhD to bash this stuff? What is the obstruction of introduction for artists, producers, creatives? What muscles bash you person to usage different than the modular originative muscles that you utilized earlier erstwhile you were making records?

Jidenna: The aforesaid muscles that everybody successful this country is gonna person to use. Curiosity, agency, accelerated learning, the quality to reinvent yourself each year. Nobody’s safe, and you person to beryllium capable to alteration yourself each azygous year. And arsenic I’ve learned this year, each period oregon 2 months.

I ticker the quality each the clip and they’re perpetually talking astir the workforce and however the workforce is going to beryllium dramatically antithetic successful this caller era. There’s the archetypal speech astir that this gyration isn’t conscionable going to impact the lowest workers, but it’s really going to commencement affecting mediate people – engineers, lawyers, you know, for the archetypal time, this exertion is going to impact each antithetic socio-economic groups of people.

Cohen: What was the moment, the airy switch, erstwhile you got drawn into doing this?

Jidenna: Well, becoming independent. I didn’t person the resources. And truthful I had to fig out, however bash I make a rollout without immoderate assistance? And literally, that’s wherefore I support bringing up being 16. I didn’t person that astatine 16. So, yeah, you person your money. You don’t privation to enactment your ain wealth in, you privation OPM. You privation different people’s money. If you don’t person that astatine the time, past you person to fig retired an unorthodox mode to get things done.

And Gen AI was the way. I didn’t cognize it astatine the time. I was conscionable styling myself. I don’t privation to bash my hair, my clothes. And that actually, my archetypal punctual is successful there. It was a set of Rastafarians wearing kilts. I’m from Nigeria, but fractional my family’s Nigerian, fractional my family’s Irish and Scottish. So I learned, however bash I harvester that successful a mode that makes maine look cool? And I started wearing that aft I had already prompted it. So it’s not truly artificial if you commencement – adjacent if you make a semblance of what you privation to become, if I’m wearing it, if I go it, it’s not fake. It’s nary much fake than idiosyncratic posting the blessed days successful their life. Social media is, to me, much fake than what I do. But they telephone it artificial and they don’t telephone it art.

Cohen: My life’s ngo has ever been to person a satellite wherever determination are much artists and songwriters making music, and 1 of the astir important parts of what we bash is the work part. And that’s wherefore you saw america people with m...