Where we keep it real and honest!
Sept. 7, 2026

AI Should Be the Tool, Not the Artist

AI Should Be the Tool, Not the Artist
Not Just Music Podcast
AI Should Be the Tool, Not the Artist

Artificial intelligence has changed the way music is created—and even the way people listen. Instead of simply asking whether a song is good, listeners are increasingly asking, “Was this made with AI?”

In this episode of Not Just Music Podcast, Duan Barrino continues the conversation about AI’s growing influence on music. He explains why AI can be a powerful creative tool, but should never become the sole determining factor behind an artist’s work.

Prompting alone is not a golden ticket into the music industry. Artists still need talent, substance, presentation, a personal identity, and the ability to bring their music to life beyond a computer screen. When AI replaces the human instead of assisting the human, music risks losing even more of its value.

This isn’t about bashing AI. It’s about using it responsibly, strengthening what you already bring to the table, and making sure people can still see and hear the person behind the creation.

Use the tools. Accept help. Learn the craft. Build your own path—and never lose the human touch that makes your music yours.

Not Just Music Podcast—where we keep it real and honest.

https://www.notjustmusicpodcast.com/follow/

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WEBVTT

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What's going on people don't bring on not just

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music podcast Wanted to take the time out to?

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Say a few things on What I was speaking on on

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the last podcast especially when it comes to

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AI So the mark of AI has totally changed the

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way Music is being interpreted. No You know people

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really are paying attention to it used to be

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at one point You know, you're trying to figure

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out what sample was being used. You know, back

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in the 80s and the 90s, people were sampling.

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You know, you'd listen to music and people were

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like, man, what song are they sampling it from?

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You know, there used to be a big thing then,

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but now there's a new thing where people are

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actually listening to music and see if they can

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figure if it's AI or not. One of the biggest

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reasons why AI shakes the world so hard is because

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It's not real. So people feel like, oh, it's

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not real. So, you know, we don't pay it attention.

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But to me, really, you know, music is music in

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the sense of noise, organized noise for the sake

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of whether if it's AI driven, whether it was

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made by a keyboard, it could be a real nice keyboard

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like a Nord, you know what I'm saying? Stage.

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type situation, Yamaha, motif, montage, whichever

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of your tastes, your flavor, rolling, whether

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you have like Casio. But does that mean just

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because you have a Nord or something to that

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nature and somebody has a Casio, does that mean

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that you're better in the sense? Somebody makes

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a replicated situation. AI is basically replicating

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something that it knows. What is it replicating?

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The stuff that we put out. That we've been putting

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out. So just like 80s and 90s era was still in

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music from the earlier times of music. Basically

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AI is still in what artists have been doing for

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years now. Maybe since the early 2000s, mid 2000s

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to now. It's just replicating what it sees and

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hears and knows to see for us to, you know, pick

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up on. But what do we do? We'll take it and like

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really put our harsh hands on it just because

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it's super useful. Anything that is super useful

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and super helpful, we will usually just take

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advantage of it in some cases, you know. We'll

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take advantage of it. But the biggest thing is,

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is when you're taking advantage of it, are you

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taking advantage of it in the sense of you want

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to make it, you know, enhance what you have or

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do you want it to be the solid determining factor?

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Real life, it is not the determining factor.

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You really have to have substance behind AI.

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You have to have substance behind AI it is the

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only way for it to make sense to be presented

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and You know taken in and interpreted the correct

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way because people will totally look past your

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message If it's not presented the right way just

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like for years presentation has been everything

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Just because you have AI does not mean that presentation

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is going to be everything Some people are going

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to look at it and automatically say, oh, this

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AI, I'm not going to look at it. They just, their

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brains detune. It didn't used to be that way

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until, like I said, the model was given away.

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The model is being sold now. But for years, people

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were using AI and have gotten in the situation

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of where AI has become, became that forefront.

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They gave it to the world. But the world just

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totally took it and just abused it. Especially

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when it comes to music. Soon -o, all these, you

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know, music AI, all these programs that deal

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with music and AI, you know. Lovely situation.

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Only if it's used as a tool. Only if it's used

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as a tool. hands can get on these, you know,

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these, as I say, once these hands get on them,

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you know, people will manipulate it in some type

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of way to make it seem if it's theirs, and in

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a sense of it was really, you know, solely created,

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composed by AI. Prompting was just a piece of

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it, but prompting does not promise you. a golden

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ticket into the music industry. If you can't

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get up there and sing that song, if you can't

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get up there and play that song, you don't have

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much of anything. You have to be the lead determining

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factor of the song. AI can help you get there,

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but in the sense of saying that help, it should

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be little. It should be very small, something

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that would enhance Just like we use all of these

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plugins to you know Make our music make our podcast

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make anything that we're giving to the world

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audio driven Movies in that nature we use plugins

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to make everything sound its best now how it's

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going to be interpreted by people understanding

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it now is totally different because they feel

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AI is everything AI is the leading role right

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now for some reason but at the end of the day

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I wish that we could get back to the point where

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music is just music and people can just listen

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with an interpreting ear of saying music is music

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is this good music or is this bad music if you

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want to call it AI you can call it AI But at

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the end of the day, let's not bash people who

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are feeling, feeling that their music prompting

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journey is AI and their ticket into music was

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AI. So at the end of the day, just remember these

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things will always continue to keep going on

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about AI in this way if people continue to abuse

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it. Now we've gotten to that point where the

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abuse of it has become the forefront and they've

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ticketed the situation now. I say ticketed because

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people look at it and when you go on like on

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Spotify, you pick a song, click on that song,

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you can scroll down to the bottom and see who

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made that song. A lot of these songs are now

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showing AI. What's going on? It's your boy Dwarne

00:07:10.699 --> 00:07:13.920
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00:08:11.050 --> 00:08:13.290
AI prompted, things of that nature to let you

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know that is AI. So with that, Nobody knows the

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strong points of whether, you know, the music

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is going to touch people in the sense of, is

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it AI? So now those that didn't know, you can

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know. You can know. Now, proving this is still

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going to be the biggest thing. Remember the value

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of music has totally shifted. The value of music

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has totally shifted. Those little things that

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we're doing now to make music continuously like

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AI can, it's slowly degrading the music. It's

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giving the music something that it doesn't need.

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The music industry something that it doesn't

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need. The independent music industry something

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that it doesn't need. And that's something that's

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devaluing the music. They'll devalue the music

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the easier we find ways to make music the less

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value music will have they will find a way We've

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watched the music industry go downhill since

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2000 if nobody has paid attention Since 2015

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your value of your music is totally changing.

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Some of y 'all don't even know it and didn't

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even notice it. Some people weren't even born

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to know that the value of music actually was

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valuable and very valid at one point. Where you

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could just take a CD, hit the streets, walk around,

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and sell that CD. Literally. But people don't

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understand that concept anymore because it doesn't

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live within a farm. if it doesn't live within

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a tablet, if it doesn't live within a computer.

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So those instances of what the computer has presented,

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things like AI, tools, basically tools that will

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make things easier. It's just really burning

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a hole in what we normally do, what we naturally

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do. It's a very natural situation to be driven,

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but to be driven and have a total path of I wanna

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do, I wanna be something, you have to have that

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value of human still present. You have to have

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the value still present. You just don't wanna

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go hit a stage and say I used AI to prompt the

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whole thing. You wanna have a whole entire different

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plan. Something that makes sense to people that

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a human could be able to do it. Versus just saying

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let's just prompt AI the whole time. I'm not

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bashing AI. But again, I'm trying to help the

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situation with AI. Do I use AI? Yes, I use AI.

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But at the same time, do I abuse AI in the sense

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of for gain? No. I use it for a helpful tool

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to create, to enhance. Just like, no, I'm talking.

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This is me talking. This is not AI. This is me

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giving the real. So that's what I always want.

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If I'm gonna show you something in the front

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that has AI, I want you to see or hear the human

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behind it and why it is the way it is. So make

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sense of those times and those measures that

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you go through when it's time to create music.

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Remember, AI can really be helpful, very helpful,

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but it also can be a very big, you know, Dislike

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and misunderstanding for some Some will not take

00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:03.799
this the correct way So be prepared to understand

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or get the question did you use AI it is very

00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:11.519
natural now Just like you heard in the last podcast

00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:15.740
cute eggs. Did you use AI? In the sense of did

00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:19.379
I use it? Yes, I used it, but I didn't use it

00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:23.019
in the sense of what he feels that it was made.

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He might have thought it was something musical

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and it was nothing musical at all. It was nothing

00:12:29.059 --> 00:12:31.720
musical, it was nothing vocal. It was nothing

00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:34.320
to the nature of that. It was really just a case

00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:40.720
of using it to make his cover. That's it, using

00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:42.899
it to make the cover. So part of the song was

00:12:42.899 --> 00:12:45.419
the cover, I guess you could say that. But for

00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:48.639
the sake of knowing that you can create music

00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:52.240
still. and I have the ability to create music

00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.519
still you know from a scratch man you know from

00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:58.799
a scratch point and take it from ground zero

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to something that's still a blessing to be able

00:13:01.139 --> 00:13:07.000
to do that so let me let me let me close it the

00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.019
correct way help get help if you need help ask

00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:14.309
for help like we do AI But there's the realistic

00:13:14.309 --> 00:13:17.389
people out here other than just asking AI because

00:13:17.389 --> 00:13:19.029
AI is only going to give you something that's

00:13:19.029 --> 00:13:21.809
very internet based. It is nothing that is very

00:13:21.809 --> 00:13:24.789
much a physical human situation going on with

00:13:24.789 --> 00:13:28.149
it. So just remember to take that part very serious

00:13:28.149 --> 00:13:31.029
even yourself to ask somebody. If you need help

00:13:31.029 --> 00:13:32.629
with something that you got going on in real

00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:35.710
life, ask for it. Don't get to the point where

00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:39.070
you're just like falling into that trap where

00:13:39.070 --> 00:13:42.759
just music is AI, all of that stuff like that,

00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.340
that's beautiful. But there's still humans who

00:13:45.340 --> 00:13:49.220
create music and know the path and know what

00:13:49.220 --> 00:13:52.519
you're trying to get to. So take advantage of

00:13:52.519 --> 00:13:57.600
the help, but also understand it, learn it. Find

00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:01.179
your own path plan and build your own situation

00:14:01.179 --> 00:14:04.340
so it can be your own. It can have its own touch.

00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:09.139
It can have its own feel. Autism community, disability

00:14:09.139 --> 00:14:12.929
community. I love y 'all. Y 'all always continue

00:14:12.929 --> 00:14:18.490
to keep me motivated. Motivated daily to do something

00:14:18.490 --> 00:14:22.090
daily. I really appreciate it because like I

00:14:22.090 --> 00:14:26.450
said, I have two myself who deal with this situation

00:14:26.450 --> 00:14:32.090
every single day. So I understand. Got y 'all

00:14:32.090 --> 00:14:35.429
in my prayers at the end of the day. Y 'all can

00:14:35.429 --> 00:14:40.460
do it just as much as we can. Peace. Love.