It’s like mixing poison with oxygen: AR Rahman on the potential misuse of AI in music

Oscar-winning composer A R Rahman has said that while artificial intelligence brings both positive and negative elements to music, its unchecked use could lead to chaos.

The musician is not averse to new technology in music and in fact used an AI software to recreate the voices of late singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed for a track, ‘Thimiri Yezhuda’ from Rajinikanth-starrer “Lal Salam”. But he did that with proper permission from the family of the musicians.

Rahman acknowledges that the use of AI in music has “gone wild”.

“I don’t know what’s going to be, belling the cat. Some of the songs are so filthy, yet they come out with the voices of popular singers. It needs to be controlled because if it’s not, there’ll be chaos,” the musician told PTI in an interview.

The music maestro, who has two Oscars, a Golden Globe and Grammy to his credit, said it is important to have rules for ethical use of the AI technology.

“There are both good and bad aspects, and the good things should be used to empower people who never had the chance to put their vision into action. But overusing it in a bad way is bad for us. It’s like mixing poison with oxygen and breathing it in.

“There should be rules, like certain things you can’t do. Like, how they talk about ethics or behaviour in a society, this is also behaviour in the software and digital world,” he added.

Rahman is currently working on his much anticipated “The Wonderment Tour”, to be held on May 3 at the DY Patil Stadium. The concert was conceptualized by the composer himself in collaboration with Percept Live and co-produced by Percept Live, Fair Game and Jo Entertainment.

The global premiere of ‘The Wonderment Tour’ is said to be a grand concert under the aegis of the WAVES summit taking place from May 1 to 4. Tickets are now available in the District by Zomato app.

The 58-year-old musician has a slew of projects in the pipeline, including the romantic film, “Tere Ishq Mein”, with his frequent collaborator, filmmaker Aanand L Rai, Mani Ratnam’s “Thug Life”, Rajkumar Santoshi’s “Lahore 1947”, Meena Kumari biopic, and the Hansal Mehta-directed “Gandhi series”.

He is also reuniting with Imtiaz for his next after “Chamkila”.

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“The more you see people loving ‘Vida Karo’ and ‘Mirza’, it forces us to look back and get that beautiful aura of that era in your way. So that’s a good thing to see,” he added.

Rahman is also excited about the upcoming Hansal Mehta series on “Gandhi”, which is headlined by Pratik Gandhi.

“The Gandhi series is unexpectedly beautiful, I never expected that to be such a beautiful experience. Working with Hansal Mehta and Sameer Nair was fascinating. Even Gandhiji’s life… I feel that’s like a textbook, and it’s a fantastic textbook for the previous or the future generation to see the father of the nation,” he said.