A New Form of Musical Expression

Marco’s charms - the beaches and sunsets, its eateries, recreation and entertainment options - its overall ambiance has provided inspiration for many creatives, whether they express themselves visually, in prose or poetry, or musically.

Arthur Zards is excited about having joined their ranks and about the technology that has made it possible: Artificial Intelligence.

In February, he began experimenting with songwriting and recording, an effort that produced a series of tunes featuring lyrics celebrating things that are near and dear to his heart about the Marco area and its people. The part-time resident has even placed the first seven compositions on Spotify.com in an album entitled “Marco Island Vibes.”

With titles such as “Marco Island Vibes,” “An Almost Island Goodland,” “Walk the Beach at Six, “Chikee or Tiki,” “Marco Midnight,” “Stories and Shells,” and “Next One’s Better,” there can be no doubt about the source of his inspiration.

Zards, 57, travels to Marco frequently from his Chicagoland home, with his wife, Heidi, and their children Milo, 21, and Fia, 16, in tow. He began visiting the island in the mid-80s, along with his brother, Andy, after their parents, Andrew and Margarita Zards, purchased a condo here. Today, their parents live in Naples, while Andy Zards lives near the island, in the Naples Reserve development.

“We still have the condo, so I go back numerous times a year,” he said. “The area has become a place where I spend a lot of time and have grown very fond of. It's a second home.”

The local references at the heart of Zard’s reggae-influenced, professional-sounding tunes will likely interest those familiar with the community. Another lure is provided by the use of AI, the increasingly ubiquitous and amazingly powerful digital platform integral to their creation.

Employing the latest in technology is a natural for Zards, a professionally accomplished, right-brained type with a creative streak and an enthusiastic belief in AI’s staggering potential as a tool capable of enhancing a multitude of personal and professional activities.

An internet entrepreneur, he boasts of founding an internet company before the advent of the web browser. His resume includes 30-plus years in online networking, digital marketing, and digital business aspects.

In January, Zards ended his long-standing “TEDxNaperville” TED Talk speaker series in that Chicago suburb to dedicate himself to a new venture focused on artificial intelligence.

Zards describes himself as an “AI strategist,” rather than an expert in the emerging field where computers and machines simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy.

“In this context, I help organizations make sense of AI,” he explained. “So if anybody has an organization or a company and they're trying to make more sense of it, I share my presentation and some tools that people can use because a lot of companies have a lot of fear and anxiety with AI. But once they get comfortable with knowing what's really going on and they start playing with it, they embrace it.

Lyrics for “Marco Island Vibes” were composed with assistance from ChatGPT and other AI platforms. Its use for the rest of the songwriting and recording process, the melodies and the notes and rhythms, was more intensive. AI was utilized for arranging and instrumentation. Even the male singing voice is AI-generated.

“It's collaborative,” said Zards of the songwriting process. “I call it vibing.”

The technology allows the user to have wide-ranging control over all aspects of recording, even customizing the voice used for each song.

“I'll define it like, I want a female voice, but I want it very raspy and whispery,” he explained. “It's all in how you design the prompt. That's where the work comes in. You can get to it to a surprisingly decent level of accuracy. The technology is only improving. So, what you play with today is going to be different a couple days later.

Zards’ introduction to AI's use in creating recorded music was tunes he heard on YouTube, a discovery that took him by surprise, as someone well-versed in the technology.

“I was playing a song and I'm going, ‘Man, that is really good, who is this artist? I've never heard of them before,’” he said. “And then I investigated a little bit and I'm like, ‘Oh, this must be a lie.’ My jaw dropped. It was amazing.”

While this is Zard’s first foray into songwriting, he does have a musical background – playing mostly guitar, along with the trumpet, piano and even the didgeridoo.

“I'm not really great at any of them, but I know enough to get around. I'm like a seven-chord guitar player,” he said. “That's why I love the AI piece because I can figure out how to play a song.”

His creativity has long included writing and storytelling, communication skills that have proven essential in his professional life as a speaker and presenter. With the help of AI, he’s been able to utilize those talents in new ways, in combination with his abilities as an instrumentalist.

“I found out that I have a good talent for telling stories, but maybe not so much for writing songs or playing music on my own,” explained Zards. “But with artificial intelligence’s help, I can now become an actual musician and producer. But for me, it's more about telling stories through music.”

He continues to write songs, and he’s also expanded his experimentation with the AI-based process to include using his own voice as the basis for what’s heard on recordings.

“AI will change the tone and change the words, but it's still my vocal footprint, which is wild,” he said. “It's fascinating how that's changing things. So the next songs will sound like me, but it's not me singing.”

Zards theorized that demonstrating how AI has changed the creation of music can be a valuable tool in creating awareness about the technology’s multi-disciplinary potential.

“Too many people are looking at artificial intelligence as a productivity tool for how to write an email better,” he said. “But it's much bigger than that. Music is purely an emotional medium. And if I can show people how AI is changing music, I think they'll start to grasp how they can only start to imagine how it's going to change the rest of society, and how they live and work.”

To listen to Arthur Zards’ “Marco Island Vibes” on Spotify, please visit

open.spotify.com/album/6DmF4Ilztw3oKwHux07QOv