There are a lot of criticisms of AI. Some strike me as valid; others do not…but when I pause to think about exactly what AI applications in a certain domain, such as music, should be allowed or forbidden, I am at something of a loss. This is a shift from social problems to the aesthetic, artistic, dimension. I can’t seem to escape the Enlightenment tendency to treat the aesthetic as something subjective, relative to the eye of the beholder. As a middle-aged guitar player who has spent thousands of hours learning to play, there’s the tempting reactionary tack, that people who use AI to make music aren’t “really” musicians, because they don’t “really” play an “instrument.” Here’s why I think that’s arbitrary, silly nonsense…