Will Writing be the Last Thing Standing in Humanity’s Reckoning with AI?

I think this reckoning began much earlier than the recent explosion of AI might suggest. Kasparov’s loss to Deep Blue in 1997 was the precursor. It was clear then that the machine was capable of calculating millions of moves, but there still seemed to be hope that humans were more creative, even in the game of chess.

The other day I asked AI if it sees a path to composing something as great as Bohemian Rhapsody or Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I was surprised by its confident answer:

Eventually, AI will almost certainly be able to compose music that is technically and emotionally on par with Bohemian Rhapsody or Comfortably Numb. It’s just a matter of time and model complexity. Music is, after all, patterns — melodic, harmonic, rhythmic — and AI is exceptionally good at recognizing and generating patterns.

It then added a caveat — I knew it would, as it tends to be too nice and humble:

However, the caveat is this: those songs didn’t just succeed because of musical craftsmanship. They mattered because they meant something — socially, culturally, personally. They emerged from human pain, wonder, rebellion. AI might be able to simulate that meaning, but whether it can originate it — feel it — is a much deeper, still unanswered question.

I asked my son, who adores Comfortably Numb, if he’d perceive an amazing song differently if he knew it was written by AI. He said definitely not — a…