Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu is one of the most famous names in the realm of video game music, having established his reputation with some truly iconic soundtracks.
While Uematsu is arguably in the twilight of his career, his opinion still counts for an awful lot – and critics of Generative AI will be pleased to learn that the Final Fantasy legend has no interest in making use of the controversial technology.
"I’ve never used AI and probably never will," he says in an interview with JASRAC Magazine, spotted by Automaton Media. "I think it still feels more rewarding to go through the hardships of creating something myself. When you listen to music, the fun is also in discovering the background of the person who created it, right? AI does not have that kind of background though. Even when it comes to live performances, music produced by people is unstable, and everyone does it in their own unique way. And what makes it sound so satisfying are precisely those fluctuations and imperfections."
Uematsu's comments come at a time when the creative world is stuck at a crossroads. Companies like OpenAI, Google and Meta are all pushing Generative AI as a tool to help produce images, video and audio, but critics have condemned the technology due to the fact that it is trained on human-made content, often without permission. AI-made content then competes directly with the human creators who helped train it.
As Uematsu says, many people stand firm on the fact that simply typing in a prompt isn't a valid act of creation – certainly not in the same way a human being might produce a piece of music based on multiple influences, or even how they feel at a particular time.
Uematsu has recently retired from full-time game music production, but admits that his plate is still pretty full thanks to a new album and a series of live performances.
"I think this is the busiest I’ve ever been," he tells JASRAC. "If I’m not working every day, I end up feeling like I’m not going to wake up tomorrow. Those who’ve struggled to make a living before are probably like this forever."