Dr. Dre says he is “embracing” AI in music: “It’s a new tool for creativity”

Dr.

Dre has revealed he uses AI while producing music, defending the technology as a “new tool for creativity”.

The rapper and producer discussed the divisive topic alongside his longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine in a new interview with the New York Times published today (August 23).

Dre compared resistance to AI with the opposition that initially greeted drum machines and synthesisers.

“I had a discussion with a few people a few days ago,” he said.

“They were against AI and I’m like, ‘OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out’.

Or synthesisers, right? It’s a new tool for creativity.

Some people are afraid of learning new things.” He continued: “I’m embracing it.

I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen with this.” Asked whether he was using AI while producing, he explained that he was employing it “as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did.” The producer also dismissed the suggestion that the technology poses a threat to musicians, saying: “I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating.” Iovine was similarly enthusiastic.

“I’m very pro-AI in music creation,” he said.

“I don’t see the downside at all.

There will be some crappy music.

There’s crappy music now.

In the studio, when gifted people have AI, they’re going to make better records.” Dre and Iovine have worked together since the ’90s and co-founded Beats Electronics, which Apple purchased for $3billion in 2014.