cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/mildlyinfuriating/p/1444350/if-this-survey-is-any-indication-audacity-wants-to-add-generative-ai-because-of-course-t

Link to the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe3ClP3sHiEQZmwwPMiJ3OzUO586yInWIME076unOdV9kG5-Q/viewform

I was invited to partake upon opening the software. I thought Lemmy might get a kick out of this.

What I see is them asking whether or not their users want to see "AI" in Audacity and that sounds like a perfectly fine thing to survey for. There is also an option for a custom response, go answer with something like "I will stop using Audacity if AI functionality gets implemented" if you care about it.

On the other hand, I think Audacity has been using LLMs on the development side for a while now and Tenacity exists with a clear no-slop policy.

The only areas I’d would use “AI” in Audacity would be to better clean up background noises more easily and possibly split tracks up so I could maybe hear the voices better or instuments better depending on the scenario. GenAI is a hard no otherwise.

And tenacity doesn't try to push online subscriptions to stuff I don't need, and closed source

That and image upscaling (like waifu2x) are AI software I don't actually mind. Although I'd want to have proper ethical suite (aka disclose the training data, open source models, runs on your device)

You mean open source right?

The fact they are asking, means they are considering. And that's grounds for uninstalling it and looking for an alternative.

What about AI instruments following a human composed score?

We’ve had synthetic instruments for about as long as we’ve had audio output, I don’t think AI can really add much more.

IMO Audacity isn’t really great for music if that’s what you’re doing. Reaper is LEGIT.

Tenacity also removes all the telemetry.