With all the current hype about ChatGPT and the various AI engines that are apparently capable of generating high quality images and music, I'm wondering what the future road-map looks like for BIAB.

I've been a massive fan of BIAB since the 5.25" floppy days, but are its days numbered, in its present form?

Sure, each annual release gets a few more aesthetic features and a stack of new styles and realtrack samples, but the basic premise of BIAB hasn't really changed in the 30-ish years that I've been using it - you type in some chord symbols and it produces a backing track for you in a style of your choosing. It sounds a million times better now than it did in the early 90's (thanks to realtracks), but other than the sound quality and bit of tinkering here and there, the product hasn't fundamentally changed much over the years. But as simple as the production process sounds, you still need to have a certain degree of musical aptitude in order to get the best results from BIAB, even if you can't play any instruments.

However, I think there will come a point in the near future when we can simply say to an AI application, "create me a backing track for Autumn Leaves in a hip-hop style with a dreamy orchestral introduction and a bagpipes solo in the middle", and products like BIAB become as redundant as the musicians that BIAB has replaced (sorry! that was a rather facetious remark, as I doubt very much that any professional music has ever been made redundant by BIAB, but you get my drift and I couldn't help but observe the irony of it).

At some point, BIAB users are going to tire of the same old Jeff Lorber and Brent Mason realtracks (not me, I love those guys!), and the unadventurous intro-chorus-chorus-chorus-end song structure, and will be enticed by the possibility of simply describing their musical vision to an AI engine.

I wonder how BIAB is going to adapt to keep up with the rapid advancements in AI, or if it intends not to, but just position itself as a niche product for a specific type of person (of, dare I say it, a certain age).......