Sampling the Latent Space: Exploring the Creative Potential of Generative AI Through the Lens of Sample-Based Music Making

Sample-based composition is a century-old practice in which artists repurpose existing sounds to create new music. As generative AI (GenAI) systems increasingly reuse existing material, they are often compared to sampling and remix practices. In this paper, we draw on the relatively mature tradition of sampling to address a key concern of GenAI: how can a tool which is dependent on the recycling of existing art support meaningful creativity? We present an ethnography and thematic analysis of a sample-based music community, connecting these insights to contemporary challenges in GenAI design. We discuss how designers might support artists in engaging with environmental, fictional, communal, and agential dimensions of GenAI models and data, building on literature about sample-based music to speak not only to generative music but to GenAI systems more broadly.