"ai" and Pandora's Box! Dilemna or the future is here?

Today, I am scheduled to attend a Grammy Advocacy Day meeting with representatives from Sam Liccardo's office in San Jose. I have attended a Grammy Advocacy event before at Anna Eshoo's office in Palo Alto. We advocated for stronger laws and legal rigors protecting musician's royalties, from "Streaming" companies. We helped get some of our legislative awareness done and laws passed for stronger disclosure and reporting from streaming services and it was a productive experience.

However, I find myself in a quandary over my inner voice and today's agenda. Do I find "ai" to be "evil"? No, I do not. In fact, I find it useful. Like all new technologies, I can be skeptical, but I have always tried to embrace new ideas and change as best I can. Will I allow, "Sky Net" and"Terminator" to cloud my judgement? A bit, but only because I get it. As with all new technologies we have to remain vigilant, right? Am I concerned about rampant robotics becoming too pervasive? Yes and no. EX: It is frustrating dealing with "ai" over the phone, or in trying to deal with it in "Help" apps. That shit is dummer than a rock! Can you say useless? But...

Here's the thing. We use it all the time in recording and editing music. We have ever since we went digital. ProTools changed all that. And it is useful. I use ChatGPT for expanding my legal writing, making posters and editing photo's. As an editing tool it's very handy. In short, it's already out there! Pandoras Box right? You can't put it back, right? The dilemma today is ging to be how we as a society, legislate, this tech?

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) AKA, "Grammy" is what we as working musicians, creators, writers, producers, engineers, etc. AKA "musicians" refer to as our governing organization, established to adjudicate, defend and represent musical achievement as an art form and to award, "judge" excellence in the creative fields of music composition, engineering and performance. Even if you or I accept it or not, GRAMMY is the tip of the spear in musical achievement recognition. And, as the governing body of the profession the responsibility of adjudication of all things musical falls on NARAS to govern how we as a professional body protect our rights, receive recognition and receive royalties... get paid! <How am I doing s far?> <You feeling me?>

I am an old dog. I have been a professional musician over five decades. Seriously dedicated and afflicted with this addiction. It's a curse and a blessing, right? As a profession and job, music has been very good to me and a source of pride and lots of wonderful personal relationships. The community of music includes so many diverse artistic disciplines and vendors/professions it touches the human soul, connecting and inspiring dance, film, photography, engineering, design, etc., the list is as vast and important to the human experience that we must protect ourselves from ourselves as new technologies and art forms emerge.

And so, in closing, I will report back as to my experience today and look forward to making new friends and expanding my horizon while being a productive steward of the music community.