By Spencer Kornhaber
Publication Date: 2025-12-22 13:00:00
People may have sung before they spoke. Scientists since Charles Darwin have speculated that music predated language for our early ancestors—and perhaps formed the basis for it. The “singing Neanderthals” theory reminds us that humming and drumming are fundamental aspects of being human. Even babies have some musical instincts, as anyone who has ever watched a toddler try to beat his tray to the beat knows.
This should be taken into account when evaluating the rhetoric surrounding the topic of music through artificial intelligence. This year, technology created songs that attracted millions of listeners and led to major label deals. The pro and anti sides have generally agreed on two different arguments: one says that AI will take humanity away from music (which is bad), and the other says that it will further democratize the art form (which is good). The truth is that AI is already doing something stranger. It opens Pandora’s box that tests what we think of as…