Fender CEO Calls Cover Songs ‘Analog AI’
Fender CEO Bud Cole says AI has existed in music for as long as recorded music, describing cover songs as a long-standing form of “analog AI.” Cole said the biggest barrier to playing guitar is the time required to learn the instrument. He identified songwriting as the second barrier and argued that AI can play a part there. “I actually believe cover music has been sort of analog AI for a long time,” Cole said. People who cannot yet write their own songs can instead play music written by their favorite artists. Cole recalled listening extensively to REM, U2, The Smiths, and The Cure. He eventually wanted to play their music rather than only listen to it, which led him to learn guitar. Cole’s analogy gives Somali musicians a concrete question to debate: can learning from earlier artists meaningfully be compared with AI learning from existing data?
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