Artificial Intelligence Part 2: The Issue of Authenticity

Over the past decade, I’ve noticed a practice in churches that feature modern worship. And that is the use of piano shells.

A piano shell is a piano, usually an older one, that is stripped of the key bed, piano action mechanism, and even the strings. In its place, a keyboard and other electronics is placed inside. These gutted pianos are typically outfitted with an 88-note weighted keyboard controller, which can then be used to play computer-based virtual instruments, sample-based synths, or whole tracks. The advantages of this are many. Using music software like MainStage or Kontakt, you have access to literally thousands of sounds beyond the simple piano. Virtual instruments can be layered or split for thicker, more complex instrumentation. And nothing ever goes out of tune. Virtual instruments are simply part of the modern sound.

Now I’ve always had mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I’ve been at the cutting edge of digital keyboards and computer-based recording since the mid-eighties. And I love where the technology has taken us over the decades. On the other hand, I’m also a pianist in the deepest parts of my DNA. There’s an organic purity to sitting at a grand piano with the lid up, and simply playing. You can feel the sound enveloping you, the hammers moving, the ebony and ivory below your fingertips. You feel connected to the sound in ways that you simply cannot with a keyboard. At the heart of it, keyboards are essentially glorified computers—but pianos have soul.

Here’s the thing. I’m not really speaking about music. This is all a metaphor for the increasing inauthenticity I see as a result of technology. It seems that technology is not only making life easier, but it is also making it easier to become less authentic. Like a beautiful piano shell that hides an unsightly slew of cords, cables, and electronics. And few seem to think this is incongruent or deceptive in any way. Here are a few examples:

• A friend was commiserating that everyone now seems to be using ChatGPT to write their CVs (Curriculum Vitae) in order to “level up” in the interview process. Consequently, all the submissions use the same key buzz words, making it difficult—if not impossible—to get noticed, he reasoned. The result is a malaise of uniformity where no one can truly be themselves.

• My daughters had to explain to me what a “Tinder angle” was. (It’s the optimal angle to take a photo to post on a dating app in order to look thinner/younger/cuter.) Apparently, that’s a thing. Sometimes, these Tinder angle pics are further photoshopped as well, all in an attempt to display a better (and sometimes different) looking version of oneself.

• I’ve had several conversations lately with worship leaders who seemingly find it impossible to not use worship backing tracks and loops with their worship teams. They reason that they cannot “sound like the record” without the backing tracks playing along with their band. (One worship song had seven guitar stems playing simultaneously, prompting the volunteer guitarist to ask, “Why am I even here?”) Unfortunately, one of the side effects of backing tracks is that the worship team’s uniqueness—both individually and as a group—is stripped away. How authentic can worship be when the worship team always tries to sound like someone else?

• Speaking of ChatGPT, a friend shared an incident where students were required to provide a theological statement, and one had responded with a ChatGPT-written paper. A seminary student was willing to allow a robot to create the theological positions of their faith, rather than think deeply about forming an authentic and personal position of their own.

• A more obvious example of inauthenticity is using burner profiles on one’s social media (notorious on Reddit for example) to create alter egos (often times to disseminate misinformation or hateful speech). Lately these burner profiles are increasingly being used to create fake online reviews (everything from book reviews to Amazon product reviews). One book author was recently caught creating a series of burner accounts on Goodreads in order to inflate her own book rating while simultaneously bombing competitors’ ratings.

• Probably the most disturbing aspect of AI has to do with digital cloning. Over $3 trillion dollars is currently being invested in artificial intelligence, including real-time clones that are intended to represent (and sometimes replace) people in business and other interactions. In the ironic (and in my opinion, naively dangerous) words of one AI tech company spokesman, this is intended to augment our authenticity. Click the link if you want to be shocked.

There’s an irony in all this. We live in a disjointed, disenfranchised culture that increasingly thirsts for authenticity and realness. But we’ve created a situation where we’re seemingly unable to separate ourselves from the technological facades that we’ve made of ourselves. Now, I understand that technology can be used to increase our creativity, and hopefully enhance the unique artistic voice that each of us has. Technology can and does help us become more connected in many ways. But at the same time, we too often lean into false versions of ourselves—online, in our artwork, in the marketing of our artwork, and even in real life. In other words, we too often embrace the fake real over the real real.

The false self has become virtual and viral.

And that brings us back to Artificial Intelligence. I shudder at the messiness of Deep Fakes that steal and manipulate people’s images, digital clones that are designed to live for us and even outlive us, immersive roleplaying games where you can pretend to be someone else in a land that doesn’t really exist. AI, in all its various forms, will allow us to completely insulate ourselves from community, from accountability, from reality. Legislation is probably ten years behind AI technology. And our imperfect souls are far behind that.

This blogpost series is probably the closest I’ve come to a rant. And I really do apologize for that. But if it is true that art is the truest expression of humanity, what happens when we relegate that art to AI? Let me know your thoughts, and push back at me if you want. I don’t pretend to have any answers here.

[NOTE: This is the second in a series where I consider some of the issues surrounding artificial intelligence. Click here to read Part 1: The Issue of Virtuosity. Banner photo by DANNY G on Unsplash. Inside photo from Ryland Russell YouTube.]