Work for a Member company and need a Member Portal account? Register here with your company email address.
Blanchard, Lancelot*, Perry Naseck*, Eran Egozy, and Joseph A. Paradiso. 2024. “Developing Symbiotic Virtuosity: AI-Augmented Musical Instruments and Their Use in Live Music Performances.” An MIT Exploration of Generative AI, September. https://doi.org/10.21428/e4baedd9.69c11de7.
Recent advancements in generative AI have led to the development of powerful models capable of generating full-length, professional-sounding music from brief text prompts. These models have also sparked concerns among artists who feel their creative roles are being overshadowed. To address this issue, we propose the development of AI-augmented instruments, defined as generative AI systems embedded within musical instruments, that provide artists with extensive control and responsiveness to real-time musical inputs while harnessing the capability of powerful AI models. Through a thorough definition of virtuosity, we explore how these AI-augmented instruments can exhibit virtuosic qualities, serve as collaborative partners, and enable artists to attain a new form of virtuosity, which we call ‘symbiotic virtuosity.’ Furthermore, we present a set of guidelines for effectively communicating the AI’s capabilities to live audiences. To exemplify our reflections, we delve into our collaboration with Grammy-winning keyboardist Jordan Rudess, which resulted in a pioneering AI–human co-created demonstrative performance that was held at the MIT Media Lab in April 2024.