Sitting in the grey area

More and more I find myself sitting in this middle ground. The no man's land of not knowing how to balance my opinion in my own industry.

I see a fear that AI is taking over, a reality where people will lose work due to the integration of AI, fueling the “that's good enough” narrative. I also see a stubbornness in accepting AI as part of our future, and an unwillingness to learn how to implement it into our work.

But like me, many are stuck here, in the grey area.

These technological advancements would amaze (and confuse) my younger self, and I'm reminded of Back to the Future-esque dreams where anything felt possible (even the hover shoes). But I am now a professional working in an industry very heavily impacted by decisions to integrate AI into their workflow, and ultimately no matter how much my younger self may look at this shiny new tech, I feel sad that people are being pushed to feel less connected to their craft, their passion, their love. 

Ultimately, I think I know in my heart that the human approach will always be best for so many elements of audio creation and design.

There is a real joy experienced from our process.Growing up without these tools is where I learnt how to do it. I had to. There wasn't an AI assistant there to support me, so I jumped in and figured it out – and that's where I achieved things I didn't think I would ever do.

Of course, we all work with tools that generations before never had. Technology has always evolved. But I think the difference with AI is that you can now create and work without any personal experiences, knowledge or connection to draw on. That now, without an opinion, you can make something that doesn't contain anything personal.

Now we're in this unique position of understanding both worlds: what it was like without AI, and seeing what it can do today. I think it comes down to how we balance that integration without losing the craft and genuine joy that we brought to it in the first place.

In my world, although it will keep getting better at doing certain jobs, I still think sound (and more importantly listening to sound) at its core, will always be human. 

If we took my work, no matter how much I taught an AI engine my intricacies of why I make auditory decisions, it will never have experienced what I need it to experience to create sound that truly connects with another human. I know AI can analyse scenes to ambience, place spot FX with actions, add Foley to a character's movement. But what it can’t do is recognise how it feels to be in those spaces. And how that feeling sounds.

AI can't imagine walking through a forest listening to birdsong, or how that forest sounds differently standing beneath a towering redwood compared to sitting on the forest floor. If I ask you to think about the sound you hear when you put your ear to a seashell, you can hear it in your head because your brain is remembering that experience. You know how an attic sounds in winter compared to summer. The goosebumps on your arm when that sound hits just right. 

You carry thousands of tiny auditory memories without even thinking about them – and it’s those memories that built me into the designer I am today. Without them, I'm not sure I would be able to listen critically or create the way I do. Those experiences are what make my sound feel right. They can't be manufactured by something that has never felt those things.

And that's where, as sound designers and creatives, I think we have the edge.

Talking to AI, no matter how sophisticated it becomes, will always feel like talking to someone who has never heard a thing in their life. Yes, I might have a sound file called "attic house in winter with draft.wav", but that won't resonate with every attic scene or a feeling you want to evoke within that sound. The only reason I know how a particular attic should sound is because, when I'm sent footage, I immediately begin relating it to my own experiences. I can hear it. I can feel it. And I can translate that feeling into sound within my DAW. Those experiences are the foundation of why I love audio. I'm always listening. Always absorbing. Constantly collecting sounds that become part of how I understand the world.

So when someone tells me they want "a warm day that makes me feel like I'm in the middle of a summer heatwave in a field next to a river", I know what that feeling sounds like because I've been there. I’ve experienced it.

AI can search terms. It can analyse metadata, articles, blogs and documentation about how someone once created the sound of a field. It can analyse footage, a scene, a description and accurately match it to a library: there's a river, birdsong, the wind. But it can't add the experience that creates feeling. Because just having the elements isn't enough. It will do an OK job. Maybe even a fine job. One that will work for lots of scenarios. I just don't see it ever making something with feeling.

And that's where I think relying on it to be a limitless creative tool will be our downfall. If you're looking for a feeling, you can't rely on an engine.

You have to get out there, live life, and experience it for yourself.