Why is music so much easier for AI than code?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48855797

by htlemur_bobby • 13 days ago

4 14 13 days ago

news.ycombinator.com

Guys I made this song on Suno ai and it is literally, to me, more beautiful than any song I have ever heard in my life, ever.

But I still feel that I am a better coder than even the best models. (As of gpt 5.4)

It seems that music is so hard, why is it ai has already surpassed us there but not in code? Seems that code is easier.

https://suno.com/s/ZpeRr0nngDrlef5D

measurablefunc• 13 days ago

I recommend you look into Gell-Mann amnesia.

ben_w• 13 days ago

Or Dunning Kruger.

I like messing around with Suno, but I know I don't have much musical taste, yet even so when I try to push it to be even a little weird it fails utterly: a call for "one minute" of animal noises is rendered as 90 seconds of electric guitar; asking for every verse to be in a different accent from around the world is rendered as *at best* two, but usually one; asking for one specific British regional accent often comes up American, and when it actually is British it's one of two specific accents that's either "posh person trying to be middle class" or "posh person trying to be working class".

I was mostly happy to turn out a meme version of the recent SoftBank slides as a parodic James Bond theme, but even then, no goose honk noise.

Gooblebrai• 13 days ago

It seems that music is so hard, why is it ai has already surpassed us there but not in code? Seems that code is easier.

I note by this that you don't seem to have experience in music? Because in that case, you are not equipped to judge the quality of the song at some levels beyond a listen.

The same way that someone not technical can't judge the code output of the LLM and will just be impressed by the functional output (i.e. is the site working)

gangstaai• 13 days ago

Not certain but being a programmer and a musician i can guess. Theres certain trends about a pop song, tempo, drama, layering, effects, they can mimic hits, use predictable verse/chorus/verse/chorus/tag, etc. I think AI is great at code as well, completely runs circles around me in many domains.

speedgoose• 13 days ago

Popular music follows well known recipes.

Pick a scale and a tuning, a rythme signature, some chords and a progression , some random melodic pattern, a set of instruments that fit the target genre, and it will sound okay.

Now, it’s much harder to make original and musically interesting music.

worldsavior• 13 days ago

Bot post.

htlemur_bobby3• 2 days ago

lol I actually am not a bot. I took piano lessons since I was a kid thru high school and I have sat at the piano for hour and hours and hours. I was just so stunned not only by the creativity but the subtlety with which it plays the notes each one perfectly stacatto or legato perfect touch… I was never that good but I did it for so many long hours I just appreciate its skill so much.

hash0• 13 days ago

Seems to me that both music and language fall into the same category of "patterns whose consumption will trigger a highly subjective experience (pleasurable or repulsive)". AIs as pattern matching machines can do this pretty well by now. Coding, however, is a separate category, one where cold, hard logic reigns supreme. Code is not consumed to illicit a subjective response but to work, fullfil its job - which might explain the gap between these two.

Rochus• 13 days ago

Sounds like English film and television series music from the seventies (e.g. "All Creatures Great and Small"). It's nice and surprising (in that Suno was able to create it). But not "more beautiful than any song I have ever heard in my life, ever" ;-)

al_borland• 13 days ago

more beautiful than any song I have ever heard in my life, ever.

There is no way this is an honest statement, unless this is the first song you've ever heard. I can only assume you're a bot from the marketing department at Suno.

htlemur_bobby3• 2 days ago

Haha no I’m not from Suno I don’t work there. I took piano lessons as a kid so I just appreciate link a lot I guess. I just felt like it was such. Beautiful song.

airtisan• 13 days ago

Judgment and taste. I’ll still repeat those words. As a musician and music critic, you’ll spot the flaws in AI.

rishikeshs• 13 days ago

Great PR!

cc: @dang

htlemur_bobby3• 2 days ago

What does that mean?

Why is music so much easier for AI than code?

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