SINGAPORE – As someone who has been playing the guitar for many years and has had experience writing, recording and releasing music before the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), I have mixed feelings about using the technology to come up with songs.

I understand it can be a tool to discover new sonic possibilities, but I am also wary of its potential to devalue, and even replace, human labour.

So, when the assignment from my editors – to come up with a National Day song using AI – fell into my lap, I approached it with both curiosity and dread.

After reading up on the various platforms that allow users, regardless of music experience or expertise, to come up with music using generative AI, I decided on Suno. Based on reviews and feedback, it seems to be among the more intuitive ones that let users come up with songs quickly.

A few minutes later, a complete song with lyrics, a human-like singing voice and instrumentation such as drums, guitars, strings and synthesizers was born.

All I had to do was type in a few text prompts – which in this case was essentially something based on recent National Day Parade anthems such as Not Alone (2024) and Shine Your Light (2023).

But I cannot take credit for, or feel any sense of ownership over, this tune, no more than I can call myself a chef after I microwave a frozen meal bought from 7-11.

Titled Together, We Shine, it might pass as background or elevator music, but is way too generic and bland for anyone to ever take seriously as an anthem fit for the nation’s 60th birthday.

The lyrics are cliched, rife with monosyllabic rhymes (“way” with “grey”, “tall” with “all”) and cobbled together using previous official NDP favourite (“We build with dreams, we build with care, our voices echo everywhere”).

The male singing voice has, for some reason, a vague American accent, and the audio sounds so compressed and over-polished that it comes across lifeless and flat.