MUSIC

Indi-pop star Grimes talks pyschedelics, AI, creativity at UT's Buckman Speaker Series

Kelsey Bradshaw
Austin American-Statesman
Grimes and Elon Musk attended the Met Gala together in 2018. The University of Texas welcomed Grimes to campus Monday as part of the university's Buckman Speaker Series.

The line outside LBJ Auditorium at the University of Texas on Monday night was ordinary, and the auditorium inside still had plenty of seats left by 6 p.m. Things felt casual until indie-pop star Grimes, in a gray, mesh-looking head scarf with what appeared to be butterfly clips on the sides of her middle hair part, appeared.

Screaming, the kind that makes you sit up in your chair, and thunderous clapping greeted the artist as she arrived for the university's Buckman Speaker Series. The series is part of the still-to-be-opened Buckman Center at the university's school of design and creative technologies. The center, which is expected to open in the fall, will be a research lab in the Doty Fine Arts Building dedicated to studying immersive media and the future of design and creative technologies.

Grimes was joined by CreateSafe Inc. CEO Daouda Leonard; creative director and brother to Grimes Mac Boucher; and creative technologist Koto Murai on a panel moderated by Doreen Lorenzo, assistant dean for the school of design and creative technologies at UT.

The conversation centered on artificial intelligence and creativity. Here's what we learned:

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Grimes reads, fences and gets high for her brain's sake.

"I'm also a big believer in just optimizing your neuroplasticity, which is actually much easier than people think," Grimes, whose government name is Claire Boucher, said.

She explained that young people's brains start to calcify in their late 20s and early 30s. But getting your brain back into "a plastic state," or able to change, is very easy, she said. Reading for an hour a day will make your brain younger and more creative, Grimes said. She also takes fencing classes to keep her brain adaptable.

"I don't want to endorse this but psychedelics," is another option, she said. "In moderation, obviously."

For Leonard, keeping his brain agile involves seven steps: reading, breathing, meditation, acts of service, exercise, writing and making sounds with his voice, an action he calls vibrating.

"Look at that as if you do seven things every day you will somehow produce a new thought. You will somehow produce a creative thing that you might feel inspired by and somebody else might feel inspired as well," he said.

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Not being afraid to try is important to the creative process, and building up a tolerance to the fear is crucial, Grimes said. For example, for every one song she releases, there are 10 or 15 behind the scenes that didn't make the cut.

"It's kind of what makes us human is to, and especially in art and creativity, is to push the idea as far as possible," Boucher said.

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You are free to do an AI-collab with Grimes.

Artificial intelligence was discussed all night, especially after Grimes tweeted over the weekend that she would split royalities on any successful AI-generated song that used her voice.

"Same deal as I would with any artist I collab with. Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings," she said.

Grimes explained that she thinks people who do copyright strike downs on people using iterations of their voice seem to be fighting the inevitable and fighting "awesome creativity."

AI makes doing and sharing art much easier, Boucher said.

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On the safety and ethics of using AI, Grimes said there needs to be a public discourse about the topic because no one has cracked the answer yet. She said alignment research, or understanding what's going in the computer's brain, is one of the biggest things going on in the AI space right now.

"Getting as many college students as possible into AI alignment is one of the big moral imperatives of this moment," Grimes said.

Grimes would add self-teaching tools to UT's curriculum.

As the conversation neared its end, Lorenzo asked the panel what they would add to UT's curriculum. Grimes suggested giving students the tools to feel comfortable to self-teach and opportunities to shadow professionals in the industry they're interested in.

Boucher said humans will experiment and tinker on their own, but the university could help students direct their tinkering into something that can provide value for other people.

When the hourlong conversation came to a close, the students near us screamed "Mother!" to Grimes. Another yelled "I love you!" And then on the other side of the auditorium, "I love you more!" Finally, a third person in the middle said "I love you most!"

Grimes, who is elfish and sweet, made a heart with her hands and then disappeared backstage.