Human, I wrote a song for you: An experiment testing the influence of machines’ attributes on the AI-composed music evaluation

This study examines the evaluation of musical performances of artificial intelligence (AI) and the acceptance of AI music generators as musicians. Relying on theoretical frameworks of anthropomorphism and creative machine heuristics, a 2 x 2 experiment is designed, where both the perceived anthropomorphism of AI (high vs. low anthropomorphism) and its autonomy of creativity (independent vs. dependent creativity) are controlled. The study found that humanlike traits of an AI music generator led it to be accepted as a musician. However, whether it was autonomous when creating songs did not influence its perception as a genuine musician. Also, the evaluation of its songs was done independently from its attributes. Still, people who perceived the AI music generator as a musician appreciated its songs more than those who did not. The implications of the expected findings are discussed.