Musician with Parkinson’s uses AI to finish album after losing ability to play guitar

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A singer-songwriter has used artificial intelligence to help him finish his album, after Parkinson’s disease affected his ability to play the guitar.

Samuel Smith is a singer-songwriter from London, UK. In 2020, Smith was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disorder that results in motor disorders like tremors and muscle stiffness.

The disease has made it almost impossible for Smith to play guitar like he used to. For his new album, ‘The Art of Letting Go’, Smith enlisted the help of artificial intelligence to help with the creation of one of its tracks.

How the AI helped finish the album

For an instrumental track on the album, titled ‘Horizon’, Smith hummed melodies he’d created into song generators such as Suno and Udio to create a demo. After 150 attempts and lots of editing, Smith then gave the AI prompts regarding mood, instrumentation and style, and it generated a demo he was happy with.

Speaking to The Independent, Smith discussed what the AI demo is used for: “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.'”

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The final track was then played by Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage, along with Smith himself, whose arm freed up for a period of ten minutes, allowing him to “capture the last breath of [his] guitar playing.”

“AI is not replacing anything for me,” said Smith. “It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics. AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music. AI does not create my music.”

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Smith believes his experience has demonstrated the benefits of AI. As a result, he has urged AI companies to prove that they have a place in the betterment of society by engaging with health professionals or music therapists, and showing the world what they can do.

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