For Cole, the idea of artificial intelligence shaping music is not a sudden disruption but part of a much longer story. “I think AI has existed in music as long as there’s been recorded music,” he says. In his view, the toughest hurdle for aspiring guitarists remains the sheer time required to learn the instrument. But the next challenge — creating original songs — is where he sees AI becoming genuinely useful.
Cole argues that musicians have, in a sense, been using a low-tech version of AI for decades through cover songs. “I actually believe cover music has been sort of analog AI for a long time,” he says. Players who are not yet ready to write their own material often begin by performing music created by the artists they admire. For Cole, that path was shaped by bands such as REM, U2, The Smiths and The Cure. “At some point I got sick of just listening to them. I wanted to play it, so I learned to play guitar.”
He also sees another pre-digital form of AI in the collaborative chemistry of a band. A songwriter might arrive with only a riff, a chorus or the rough outline of an idea, before a drummer, bassist or guitarist helps transform it into a finished track. Cole believes modern AI tools can serve a similar creative function. “I actually think that we are in the brink of freeing up people to move beyond the same old covers and to really get into working like they do with their bands,” he says.
