Making human music in an AI world

The Vergecast

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Tech News, Technology

4.4 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For the third episode in our series about the future of music, we talk with Ge Wang. Ge is a professor at Stanford, a co-founder of Smule, the conductor of Stanford’s laptop orchestra, and has been at the center of technology and artistry for most of his life. We talk about how humans can use AI without giving in to it, what it means to truly play with technology, and the value of art and creativity and friction when it feels like all those things are being taken away. Further reading: Ge Wang’s website The future of computer music | Stanford University School of Engineering Ge’s viral TED talk: The DIY orchestra of the future From Wired: Behind the Scenes With the Stanford Laptop Orchestra Ge Wang: Human Well-Being Should Be AI Creators’ Goal Email us at [email protected] or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome with the Vergecast, the flagship podcast of music apps you play on your phone with your mouth.
0:10.1	I'm your friend David Pierce, and I am at Union Station in Washington, D.C.
0:13.9	It's like 454 in the morning.
0:16.5	And I'm on my way to New York to go do some planning meetings with a bunch of other Verge folks.
0:20.9	I've been at the Verge for like two and a half years now and there are a bunch of coworkers
0:24.7	that I've just never met in person. It's weird post-pandemic universe we live in, but I'm going to
0:30.0	go meet some of them in person. This is the third and last episode in our mini series about
0:35.1	the future of music. We've talked about Trackstar and TikTok.
0:38.1	We've talked about Autotune. And today I'm talking with a Stanford professor named Gah Wong.
0:43.4	Gah is fascinating. He's been in the music world for a long time, but he's also an academic.
0:48.5	He's also a former entrepreneur who built a company called Smule that you might have heard of.
0:55.0	He's just been in the music world thinking about this stuff for a really long time.
0:59.3	So I wanted to talk to him about AI and about virtual reality and about what it means to make music now
1:06.6	in a world where increasingly technology mediates all parts of this process.
1:12.6	We had a really fun conversation.
1:14.3	It's not at all what I expected, but I really enjoyed it, and I suspect you will too.
1:18.9	All that is coming up in just a sec, but literally this train is best to leave it without me.
1:22.7	This is the Vergecast. We'll be right back.
1:25.5	Support for the Vergecast is brought to you by Nissan Kix.
1:29.3	Hey, the Nissan Kix has undergone a complete transformation,
1:32.7	emerging as the city-sized crossover redefined for urban adventures.
1:37.1	With a striking new exterior and a fully revamped interior boasting premium features,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox Media Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox Media Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.