AI & U - the future of Music ?

What an honour it has been to host and produce the Music event of the fantastic "AI & U festival" organized by Maxine Sherrin , Spark Festival , Tech Central Sydney at the Chippo Hotel.

We brought together artists, present and emerging, experts, and enthusiasts in the realm of music and artificial intelligence. This diverse gathering aimed to emphasize the importance of human-to-human communication and collaboration as we traverse into a new era shaped by AI.

The event featured several inspiring performances and discussions that highlighted the role of AI in the creative process:

I invited Tynan, 19 years old DJ, to share the stage while we reverse engineered a prototype of a remix version I did of Lili Alaska's "Moral Killer" track with the help of a AI-generated Johnny Cash vocal clone, AI-generated piano solo, and source-separated deep house drums - all of which served as valuable learning experiences for Tynan to hone his production skills and augment his DJ performances with using his own tracks.

We demo'ed / mentioned a couple of soft / SaaS, incl. Aiva, Moises, Magenta Studio plugin in Ableton, Elevenlabs voice design. I may publish a write-up of this exercise - stay tuned :)

Ed and Lili Alaska, 18 years old emerging artists, experimented with AI and incorporated ChatGPT, AI-generated music, and more to produce lyrics, chords, and melodies on the fly, showcasing the potential of collaboration between artist and technology.

Roger Dean and Sandy Evans from Australysis, pioneers of computer generated music, demonstrated the seamless fusion of saxophone, iPad, and computer-generated sounds, illustrating endless sonic possibilities.

Associate Professor Oliver Bown, scholar and practitioner, shared his profound insights on the history and future of AI and algorithms in music creation, presenting concerns such as laziness, job loss, quality deterioration, and disruption. He also introduced his book "Beyond The Creative Species" (source).

Oliver and I were joined by Lili Alaska and Roger Dean in a panel to discuss on the questions an concerns raised by Oliver and to share illustrative lived experiences. In my eagerness to keep this event within advertised times, I missed to offer the audience time for questions, which I apologise for.

I'll use this lesson learned as a motivational clue to do better next time. #CreativeAI_Sydney II ?

Luckily, there is an amazing opportunity for the audience to be heard on this topic, and contribute to the advancement of human knowledge in this field by participating in Oliver Bown's survey ⬅️ 🛑

The event's primary goal was to foster a dialogue within an organic diversity of generations, disciplines, types of practices and even family bounds. The blending of human communication and AI technology may be an opportunity to create more connections, greater knowledge sharing, access to more modes of learning and collaboration. This needs to be done with conscience, like Rabelais would say. An opportunity I believe we may not afford not to take.

My wife Sandrine Lonchampt sent me a quote from Orwell today: “It’s not so much staying alive, it’s staying human that’s important. What counts is that we don’t betray each other.” I think it is essential to remember his words when discussing the future with AI.

I encourage everyone to support these talented artists by following their social media accounts, obviously, but also by attending their live performances, and other live performances, and to encourage others to do so. As consumers, it is essential that we commit to supporting artists beyond merely subscribing to streaming services.

Thanks a lot to the incredible mentors who volunteered their time to coach, bounce ideas, provide tech and creative support and cheered the artists (and me). Ciaran Gribbin Aude Parichot Dr Leila Alem Matan Berkowitz Cuauhtemoc Moreno Nathan Radsavanh