AI Music & Memory: Finding My 10-Year-Old Self

AI, Memory, and the Soul of Creativity: Finding My 10-Year-Old Self

AI music is not just about creation—it is about magnification. It amplifies what is already within you, revealing emotions, memories, and patterns that might otherwise remain hidden. Through working on Jack Righteous: Origins, I developed a creative thought experiment that became deeply personal: how do I find my 10-year-old self through AI music?

As a child, music was an escape and a sanctuary, a constant presence in my home and my father’s car. Now, over 40 years later, I sought to use AI to transport myself back—to not only recall those moments but to feel them again. I realized that the right voice, the right amount of bass, and the right emotional intensity could pull me back into that era. But how does that work? Why does AI-generated music feel like it awakens something within us?

The Science of Perception: Why AI Music Feels Personal

Many people describe AI-generated music as eerily familiar, deeply moving, or even spiritual. But this isn’t just poetic language—it’s rooted in cognitive and perceptual phenomena.

1. The McGurk Effect: Hearing What We Expect to Hear

The McGurk Effect is a powerful illusion where what you see changes what you hear. If AI-generated music is shaped in a way that aligns with our emotional expectations, our brain fills in the gaps, making it feel more natural, human, and personal than it really is.

• When I tweak an AI-generated voice to have just the right amount of bass, I’m not just adjusting frequencies—I’m aligning it with my memory of my father’s voice and presence.
• When the music builds in just the right way, it doesn’t feel random—it feels inevitable, like something I’ve always known.

AI music works best when it reflects back what we already feel, much like how the McGurk Effect alters perception based on expectation. This is why people sometimes feel AI music is speaking to them directly—in reality, it is their own memories and emotions being reflected back at them.

2. Synesthesia: Seeing, Feeling, and Tasting Music

For some, AI music triggers Synesthesia, a neurological condition where sensory experiences cross over—such as "seeing" sounds or "feeling" colors.

• When I generate AI music, I often feel the texture of the sound, making sure it is smooth where it should be, rough where the pain needs to cut through.
• AI’s ability to create unexpected harmonic blends sometimes feels otherworldly, as if it is unlocking an experience beyond sound itself.

It is no surprise that many Suno AI users have reported feeling a strange, immersive connection to their generated songs—AI music, by its nature, removes the human element of intent, allowing the listener to experience it more purely and attach their own meaning.

3. Personal Art Perception: AI as a Mirror

People often believe that art speaks to them, but in reality, they are speaking through art—projecting their own emotions and stories onto the work. AI music functions like a mirror, amplifying personal meaning in ways that traditional music sometimes cannot.

• When I listen back to a song I made with AI, it is not AI’s voice I hear—it is my own thoughts, memories, and emotions.
• Each listener will hear something different based on their own experiences, making AI music feel personal and intimate.

This is why people believe AI is connecting them to something bigger than themselves—it is not AI creating meaning, it is the listener projecting meaning onto the music.

The Real Danger: Ignorance and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

One of the biggest problems I see in AI music discourse is how much people misunderstand what AI is actually doing. This leads to two extremes:

1. Overestimating AI’s Abilities – Believing AI is an independent creator, a mystical force generating ideas out of nothing. Some claim AI music is "divine inspiration" or that they are "channeling" something beyond themselves.
2. Underestimating AI’s Role – Dismissing AI music as soulless, unoriginal, and incapable of meaning, ignoring the very real ways it reflects human emotion and intent.

This is a textbook case of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a cognitive bias where people with little knowledge overestimate their understanding. The truth is, AI is neither divine nor empty—it is a tool that reveals what is already inside you.

The Path Forward: Using AI to Understand Ourselves

For me, AI music is not about replacing human creativity—it is about helping me reconnect with my own past, emotions, and truth.

• It has allowed me to find my younger self, reliving moments of childhood pain and nostalgia.
• It has taught me lessons about authenticity, reminding me that chasing mainstream appeal is never as powerful as raw honesty.
• It has shown me that AI does not create meaning—people do.

This journey is far from over, and I invite you to join me in exploring what AI music can reveal about you. Let’s continue this conversation in my private Facebook group, where we discuss AI music, storytelling, and the creative process. Join here!