AIs in the Loop

 

 

"Human in the loop" is the equal division of labor in an automated system such as a driverless vehicle. In a musical context, it is interesting to have the reverse with an "AI in the loop". In a sense, jazz improvisation involves an "algorithm" in the brain operating at a sub-conscious level, processing input to some kind of output in a feedback loop.

Ideally what you want from an AI in a band with humans is to listen to what the other players are doing and react accordingly. Resolving dissonances between voices is somewhat easier at a slow tempo--some non-chord tones resolve up and some resolve down. At faster tempos dissonances can dissolve into a wash of pitches, in which pattern can be recognized.

Markov Chains are also an elegant way to think about what happens as music spins out in live performances on a set "instructions" such as a set of chord changes and a melody. ("The Head" in jazz). The output feeds back into the input as an "improvisation", very similar to what real musicians do.

The most interesting process I have seen so far is the Flow Machine, which focuses on the idea of stylization--something which humans will always excel at.

It is still too early to know the real value of AI in music. What I think is the most promising are the possibilities that are suggested by AIs from which composers take a sample and shape manually. To me, this seems more intrinsically satisfying. Otherwise, music is fungible with any object or process on which the algorithms operate. To some degree, the "singularity" has already occurred in music in that it is almost entirely digital. It used to be that the recording studio was considered the "instrument". But now that the studio is software, the computer is the instrument.

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10/12/2024:

Human In The Loop is my latest (video) album, which includes one track, The Loop, which was entirely generated by AI, but I played a bass part against it.