A.I. Music Night Host Explains Why His Open Forum Got Canceled

“I’m kind of asking for trouble,” Paul Slavens remembers thinking. He was on the phone with Chad Withers, owner of Rubber Gloves Recording Studio, the live music venue in Denton. “I want to do an A.I. Music night.”

Slavens pitched Withers on an “open forum” on A.I.-generated music, where people would discuss the future of A.I. in music, listen to A.I. songs that they’ve created and eventually experiment with creating an A.I. song together.

Initially skeptical, Withers took Slavens up on the idea and set the date for Sept. 9 at Rubber Gloves.

It would’ve been the culmination of half a year’s worth of study by Slavens, the legendary Denton musician and radio host who described first hearing an A.I.-generated song that he particularly loved as a “revelation” and having a “religious epiphany.”

“I don’t think anybody’s ready for what’s coming,” Slavens says. “It’s all started to dawn on me, the philosophical aspects of it. That’s kind of why I wanted to talk about it, because it’s going to change so many things. And for a lot of people, not for the better.”

Slavens describes A.I.’s place in art as “obviously a tool” and made it clear that he’s not advocating for the replacement of any human-made music, but thinks that it deserves an open, honest conversation, free from stigma.

He’s been experimenting with writing lyrics and then using generative A.I. prompts to craft the sound behind it.

“I’ve generated over three hours of what I consider the most mind-blowing music I’ve had anything to do with,” Slavens says. “I'm halfway through a space opera musical. I've done a whole bunch of traditional country western, a lot of Appalachian music. I've done punk stuff, rock stuff, art music, hymns and woodwind music. You name it.”

None of Slavens’ A.I.-generated music has been shared anywhere outside of a private conversation, and the A.I. music event at Rubber Gloves was intended to be a vehicle for him to play some of it for the first time.

“I've been at this for six months, making music like crazy,” he says. “I haven't shown anybody, any of it, or mentioned any of it until this. I think maybe that's why I did it. I just want to put my toe in the water and see if the piranhas bite it off.”

Last week, Rubber Gloves announced “A.I. Music Night” on Instagram, a free event with the tagline of “discuss/share/create.” Within minutes, the piranhas, as Slavens put it, came biting.

@donwiick wrote: “What's the discussion to be had? Generative A.I. should not exist in art - discussion ends there for me personally.”

@maxwellg06 wrote: “I can’t wait to not go to this.”

@bxrbedwyrebxndxge wrote: “can andys come back please.”

Dozens of comments like those littered the Instagram post, in between typed-out boos and literal tomato emojis.

Rubber Gloves responded to the backlash in the comments section.

“We share your concerns here,” the comment wrote. “If it were anyone other than Paul Slavens we would not have agreed to this. Paul has assured us this will be a [sic] open conversation about the state of A.I. music production and what it means for the industry and consumer. All viewpoints are invited to attend and voices will be heard. Extra security will [sic] provided.”
Extra security seems to be a bit of an unnecessary step, as if 63-year-old Slavens would have incited a Terminator 2-esque anti-robot uprising, but we digress.

“I knew there was gonna be backlash,” Withers says. “But I thought there would not be quite so much vocal and dog piling.”

As the comments continued to add up and vitriol grew, Withers contacted Slavens, offering to pull the plug. Slavens was traveling to see family in Iowa when the initial fallout happened, but eventually agreed, and the event was canceled just an hour later.

In the cancellation post, Rubber Gloves wrote:

“Due to overwhelming sentiment and self-reflection we have decided to cancel A.I. Music Night. We made a mistake here.”
“This night was intended to be an open forum to discuss the very real and scary reality of A.I. in the entertainment business.This was a free event, it was never our intention to promote or profit off of the music. We will meet with Paul to find a way to frame this discussion in a better context.”

“The stance of the club has been and will continue to be an A.I. free zone. We are sorry about this glitch in the Matrix.”

Some commenters rightfully noted that had the event not been called “A.I. Music Night,” the response might not have been so overwhelmingly negative.

“I think it was intentionally provocative,” Withers says. “It was his [Slavens] night, and I wanted him to take the lead. If that’s how he wanted to promote it, that’s how I was going to go with it. But yeah, in hindsight, I think it probably would have been better to frame it a little bit differently.”

We asked Withers for his personal stance on A.I., and he didn’t mince words.

“Horrendous,” he said. “It shouldn’t be happening and it needs to be heavily regulated by the government. But I want to hear from people who are doing it, who believe in it and hear their perspective. I don’t think I’m going to change my perspective, but for somebody like Paul, who’s been a working musician for 30-40 years, it’s not just somebody who’s trying to flood Spotify with quick schemes of getting money or clicks.”

Slavens told us that he’s looking into new venues to host his A.I. forum, but nothing is confirmed yet.

“My message is a message of joy, love and wonder,” Slavens says. “I don't need anybody to hear my songs. I don't. That's the whole point of it. I don't need anybody to know. I don't need anybody to care.”