{"id":474,"date":"2026-09-07T14:23:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/?page_id=474"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:23:42","slug":"before-you-make-up-your-mind-about-ai","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/?page_id=474","title":{"rendered":"Before You Make Up Your Mind About AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>body.page-id-474.page-two-column:not(.archive) #primary .entry-header{display:none!important}body.page-id-474.page-two-column:not(.archive) #primary .entry-content{float:none!important;width:100%!important}body.page-id-474 #primary{width:100%!important;max-width:none!important}body.page-id-474 .site-content .wrap{max-width:1240px!important}body.page-id-474 .entry-content{margin:0!important}.saundhaus-essay-v2,.saundhaus-essay-v2 *{box-sizing:border-box}.saundhaus-essay-v2{--se-bg:#090a0c;--se-panel:#111318;--se-text:#f2efe9;--se-muted:#aaa69e;--se-gold:#edc887;--se-line:rgba(255,255,255,.11);width:100%;max-width:1120px;margin:0 auto;padding:20px;border:1px solid var(--se-line);border-radius:20px;background:radial-gradient(circle at 10% 0%,rgba(123,82,36,.22),transparent 32rem),radial-gradient(circle at 92% 42%,rgba(38,70,89,.15),transparent 34rem),var(--se-bg);color:var(--se-text);box-shadow:0 24px 65px rgba(0,0,0,.38)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 a{box-shadow:none!important;text-decoration:none!important}.saundhaus-essay-v2 a:focus-visible{outline:2px solid var(--se-gold);outline-offset:4px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-hero{padding:clamp(42px,8vw,88px);border:1px solid var(--se-line);border-radius:17px;background:linear-gradient(135deg,rgba(255,255,255,.04),rgba(255,255,255,.009))}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-back{display:inline-flex;margin-bottom:42px;color:var(--se-gold)!important;font-size:.78rem;font-weight:800;letter-spacing:.04em}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-back:hover{color:#fff0c8!important}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-eyebrow{margin:0 0 14px;color:var(--se-gold);font-size:.75rem;font-weight:800;letter-spacing:.18em;text-transform:uppercase}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-title{max-width:850px;margin:0;color:var(--se-text);font-family:Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;font-size:clamp(3.6rem,9vw,7rem);font-weight:600;line-height:.91;letter-spacing:-.055em}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-deck{max-width:780px;margin:27px 0 0;color:#c9c5bd;font-size:clamp(1.08rem,2vw,1.28rem);line-height:1.7}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-meta{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:10px 25px;margin-top:31px;color:var(--se-muted);font-size:.78rem;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:.04em}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-meta strong{color:var(--se-gold)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-feature-image{overflow:hidden;margin:20px 0 0;border:1px solid var(--se-line);border-radius:17px;background:#050505;box-shadow:0 20px 50px rgba(0,0,0,.34)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-feature-image img{display:block;width:100%;aspect-ratio:16\/9;object-fit:cover}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-inline-image{margin:38px 0}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-inline-image img{aspect-ratio:auto;height:auto;object-fit:contain}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-feature-image figcaption{margin:0;padding:13px 18px;background:#0d0f13;color:#8f8b84;font-size:.72rem;letter-spacing:.04em}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-archive-note{max-width:890px;margin:20px auto 0;padding:23px 26px;border:1px solid rgba(237,200,135,.21);border-radius:14px;background:rgba(237,200,135,.052);color:#bbb7af;font-size:.91rem;line-height:1.65}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-archive-note strong{color:var(--se-gold)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-body{max-width:860px;margin:20px auto 0;padding:clamp(36px,7vw,78px);border:1px solid var(--se-line);border-radius:17px;background:var(--se-panel)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-body>p{margin:0 0 27px;color:#c6c2ba;font-family:Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;font-size:clamp(1.05rem,1.7vw,1.18rem);line-height:1.88}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-body>p:first-child::first-letter{float:left;margin:.08em .1em 0 0;color:var(--se-gold);font-family:Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;font-size:4.5em;font-weight:600;line-height:.72}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-body h2{margin:55px 0 23px;color:var(--se-text);font-family:Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;font-size:clamp(2.2rem,5vw,3.8rem);font-weight:600;line-height:1;letter-spacing:-.035em}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-pullquote{margin:45px 0;padding:34px;border-top:1px solid rgba(237,200,135,.3);border-bottom:1px solid rgba(237,200,135,.3);text-align:center}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-pullquote p{margin:0;color:var(--se-text);font-family:Georgia,\"Times New Roman\",serif;font-size:clamp(2rem,5vw,3.6rem);font-weight:600;line-height:1.12}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-closing{margin-bottom:0!important;color:var(--se-text)!important;font-size:clamp(1.18rem,2vw,1.35rem)!important;font-weight:600}@media(max-width:600px){.saundhaus-essay-v2{padding:10px;border-radius:12px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-hero{padding:30px 20px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-back{margin-bottom:32px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-title{font-size:clamp(3.1rem,16vw,4.8rem)}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-feature-image{border-radius:12px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-archive-note{padding:21px 19px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-body{padding:35px 21px}.saundhaus-essay-v2 .se2-pullquote{padding:29px 5px}}<\/style>\n<section class=\"saundhaus-essay-v2\">\n<header class=\"se2-hero\"><a class=\"se2-back\" href=\"\/?page_id=22\">&larr; Back to Writings<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"se2-eyebrow\">Art &amp; Technology<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"se2-title\">Before You Make Up Your Mind About AI<\/h1>\n<p class=\"se2-deck\"><em>Why I use it, what worries me about it, and why the conversation has become too simple<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"se2-meta\"><span><strong>By Eric Kauschen<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<figure class=\"se2-feature-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Codex-Image-Sep-7-2026-05_38_47-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Creative studio workspace with guitar, camera, headphones, photographs, and the words \u2018No. I made it using AI.\u2019\" width=\"1672\" height=\"941\" fetchpriority=\"high\"><\/figure>\n<article class=\"se2-body\">\n<p>Lately, I\u2019ve noticed something strange.<\/p>\n<p>Someone will react to a photo, a piece of music or a design I\u2019ve made and tell me they like it. Then, sometimes minutes later, they\u2019ll ask:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDid you do that with AI?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And suddenly it feels as though the answer is supposed to determine whether they were allowed to like it in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the question is even blunter: \u201cDid AI make this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My answer is simple:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"se2-pullquote\">\n<p><strong>No. I made it using AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That distinction matters.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a musician, composer, producer and graphic designer for decades. I was doing all of those things long before generative AI existed. Using a new tool doesn\u2019t erase everything I knew before I picked it up, any more than Photoshop made graphic designers unnecessary or digital recording made musicians stop being musicians.<\/p>\n<p>And no, AI isn\u2019t involved in everything I do. Not even close. Most of my work still happens the way it always has. I use AI when it helps me solve a particular problem.<\/p>\n<h2>When AI Becomes a Verdict<\/h2>\n<p>The weird thing is that AI has somehow become a verdict instead of a tool.<\/p>\n<p>A photograph gets labeled \u201cAI Content.\u201d Someone hears that an album cover involved AI and suddenly the music itself is suspect. Headlines say AI steals from artists, wastes water or is coming for everyone\u2019s jobs, and eventually all of those separate concerns collapse into one reaction:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ewww. AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some of those concerns are legitimate. Artists have every right to question whether their work was used to train commercial systems without their consent. Deepfakes, impersonation and voice cloning can do real harm. Jobs will change. Some will disappear. There are environmental costs that deserve scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not interested in pretending none of that exists.<\/p>\n<p>What bothers me is when every use of AI gets treated as though it were the same thing.<\/p>\n<h2>Makeup Was the Original AI<\/h2>\n<p>I sometimes joke that <strong>makeup was the original AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Obviously it wasn\u2019t. But think about what we\u2019ve always done to images. Makeup changes a face. Lighting changes it again. Photographers choose flattering lenses and angles. Darkroom photographers dodged and burned prints long before Photoshop showed up.<\/p>\n<p>If I photograph a building and manually correct the exposure, straighten the perspective and remove something distracting in Photoshop, we call that photo editing.<\/p>\n<p>If an AI tool performs those same corrections, some people suddenly call the photograph fake.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>The letters <strong>A-I<\/strong> don\u2019t tell you what actually happened to the picture.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"se2-feature-image se2-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Codex-Image-Sep-7-2026-05_39_12-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Darkroom, Photoshop, and AI-assisted editing shown as an evolution of photographic tools\" width=\"1448\" height=\"1086\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p>The same thing happened with artwork for one of my albums. People became so focused on the fact that AI had touched the cover that the music almost became beside the point.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually I thought: if you\u2019re more interested in how the cover was made than whether the songs are any good, you\u2019re probably listening for the wrong reason.<\/p>\n<h2>The Work Changes. The Experience Doesn\u2019t Disappear.<\/h2>\n<p>AI has also changed how I approach some work simply because I\u2019m older.<\/p>\n<p>At 64, I\u2019m not especially interested in rehearsing three nights a week for beer money just to prove I\u2019m a \u201creal\u201d musician anymore.<\/p>\n<p>I also don\u2019t want to spend hours doing repetitive production work when I already know what I want the finished result to be.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes my role changes from doing every mechanical step myself to directing the process.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean expertise disappears.<\/p>\n<p>If I tell a tool to correct the perspective of a building without changing the architecture, I have to know when it gets the architecture wrong. If I ask it to improve a mix without destroying the dynamics, I have to know what good dynamics sound like.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A powerful tool doesn\u2019t give someone taste.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It just gives them a more powerful tool.<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cBut AI Steals From Artists\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>The \u201cAI steals from artists\u201d argument deserves more care than either side usually gives it.<\/p>\n<p>Creative people have always learned from other creative people. Every musician I know carries around decades of influences. None of us invented the major scale, the twelve notes or the idea of putting three chords together.<\/p>\n<p>But that doesn\u2019t completely answer the concern about companies training commercial AI systems on enormous amounts of copyrighted work without asking the people who made it.<\/p>\n<p>Those are two different questions.<\/p>\n<p>So is asking an AI to clone someone\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n<p>So is asking it to reproduce a particular song.<\/p>\n<p>So is using it to help straighten a photograph.<\/p>\n<p>Lumping all of that together under <strong>\u201cAI\u201d<\/strong> doesn\u2019t make the conversation clearer. It makes it harder to have the conversation at all.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"se2-feature-image se2-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Codex-Image-Sep-7-2026-05_39_25-PM.jpg\" alt=\"Fountain pen beside the words \u2018A tool is not a verdict. Ideas still belong to people.\u2019\" width=\"1448\" height=\"1086\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<h2>A Sounding Board, Not a Ghostwriter<\/h2>\n<p>I use AI in songwriting sometimes, too, but probably not in the way people imagine.<\/p>\n<p>If I\u2019ve written a lyric that isn\u2019t landing or a bridge that feels wrong, I may talk through the problem with an AI system much the way I would bounce an idea off another musician.<\/p>\n<p>Usually I\u2019m not asking it to write the song.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m asking:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWhy isn\u2019t this working?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a sounding board, not a ghostwriter.<\/p>\n<p>And if it gives me a bad answer, I throw the answer away.<\/p>\n<p>That part still belongs to me.<\/p>\n<h2>Ask What Actually Happened<\/h2>\n<p>So when somebody asks, \u201cDid AI make this?\u201d I think they\u2019re asking the wrong question.<\/p>\n<p>Ask what the person actually did with it.<\/p>\n<p>Ask whether anyone was copied, deceived or harmed.<\/p>\n<p>Ask how much of the creative decision-making still belonged to the person using the tool.<\/p>\n<p>Then decide what you think.<\/p>\n<p>You might approve of one use and hate another.<\/p>\n<p>I certainly do.<\/p>\n<p>But at least you\u2019ll be reacting to what actually happened instead of reacting to two letters.<\/p>\n<p>And if AI was involved in something I made, I\u2019ll still give the same answer:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"se2-pullquote\">\n<p><strong>No. I made it using AI.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&larr; Back to Writings Art &amp; Technology Before You Make Up Your Mind About AI Why I use it, what worries me about it, and why the conversation has become too simple By Eric Kauschen Lately, I\u2019ve noticed something strange. Someone will react to a photo, a piece of music or a design I\u2019ve made &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/?page_id=474\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Before You Make Up Your Mind About AI&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":22,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"iawp_total_views":11,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-474","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/474\/revisions\/481"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saundhaus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}