Presented by Composer Jennifer Walshe and produced by Phil Smith

Featured in the BBC's The Messy Guide to AI, Alexandra Rieger's "Chord" turns rehabilitation into something expressive—using AI to translate a patient's smallest movements into light and sound.

Last October, I visited the MIT Media Lab in Boston. One project in particular stayed with me: musician, neuroscientist, designer Alexandra Rieger's instrument, the Chord.

"The word "instrument" is a fantastic overlap in language, I find, because both medical and musical instruments are really about extending human capability."

The Chord is a small, gleaming box. As you move your hands around it, it emits beautiful lilac and pink lights and delicate tones. "So rather than having patients perform repetitive movements," states Rieger:

...we are able to embed rehabilitation within something expressive and meaningful.

Dr. Mingming Ning is director of the Cardio-Neurology Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital. "We want patients who've lost their sensation through stroke to hear their movement through music."

One of Dr. Ning's patients is Rosemary, who is recovering from a stroke that happened five years ago. "We actually did a Zoom unboxing. It was like a Christmas present."

Supported by her wife Amy, she has been making music with the Chord as part of ongoing trials. "It was very intuitive to see how to move it. And it is truly learning an instrument, because when you move your hand, you soon start to develop an awareness of how it makes certain sounds."

"What Rosemary is doing with her affected stroke hand—she's making a fist. She cannot move that fist. She can only flex and not extend." 

"As the patient moves, the system responds in real time, using AI to help translate these movements into meaningful data and feedback, so patients and physicians can have a better understanding of how they're progressing—and not just a guess."

"Rosemary is incredible, and so is Amy. They're wonderful. They come to my clinic every time and they say, 'Oh, I think I've improved a little bit.' And from my perspective, I want them to, but I don't know. So here, what Alexandra did is really to make sure all of that small and yet meaningful movement is captured."

"We constantly are talking about mental health, anxiety, and depression, and every single one of us let our shoulders down, gave out a sigh, and felt the joy to see it the first time and hear Rosemary produce such beautiful tones with it."

None of the approaches explored in this programme are quick fixes. None of them, to borrow Mark Zuckerberg's phrase, "move fast and break things." They all require work, patience, and consideration—whether that of the person writing the code, the musicians working in the studio, the legal experts shaping the law, the academics founding entirely new fields of study, or the communities dialoguing with industry.

But the current technological moment demands that we all work to understand it, to shape it to our needs, rather than those of some of the most valuable companies in the history of our planet. The current moment asks us to rethink our definition of music, to perhaps make that definition even more flexible and generous.

Alexandra's work gives us a glimpse of one of many possible futures where AI and music bring not only technical ingenuity and delight, but also care. How many more are out there?