AI will not eliminate art. We have to ask, but we can agree with it | Classical music

The does not do chaos and disbelief surrounding the wisdom of digging between artists and creativity becomes real and results, and the language used by experts reviews of art is often apocalyptic: AI will eliminate art, and evil, and the devil. Like many emerging technologies, AI has been driven by organizations at the forefront of its development. Rapidly evolving and constantly evolving, machine learning has become increasingly associated with fear, aversion and frustration. At the same time, its power and possibilities are growing more and more, being included in almost all aspects of human activity.

What’s coming up RBO/SHIFT Festival at the Royal Opera House aims to interrogate all aspects of this rapidly growing landscape to help artists, performers, producers and audiences think critically and critically about where we are now, and where we might be tomorrow. Machine learning represents a paradigm shift, both in society and in the arts, and we need speakers, artists, educators and thinkers in this area to help us understand where they are changing and help us navigate the unknown.

Opera is a great place to see technology. It spans a wide range of art forms – music, visual arts, architecture, poetry, dance, theater and film – making it incredibly rich and broad. Opera he has also been working with technology. Beginning in the 1600s, opera producers adopted new innovations: pyrotechnics, automata, flying machines and trapdoors. Later came electronic lighting, film, digital media and advanced acoustics. At the same time, the opera preserves the art of the past: beautiful paintings, decorations, painting, preservation of period instruments and the rediscovery of forgotten music. It’s a piece of art that can be seen at the same time on the back and on the front.

The question that many people ask about AI is whether it will replace humans, and especially in terms of ownership, licensing and use of player features. Those concerns are valid and should be taken seriously. Yet in opera it is surprisingly difficult to identify works of art that can be manipulated by AI. This is not to say that change will not come, but reality is more difficult than rhetoric.

I have spent the last year talking about AI with designers, coders, researchers, writers and actors, I am not convinced that it is possible for this technology to destroy the arts. What is written most about machine learning – creating an AI that produces images, sounds and music – is very boring. There have been operas created with AI over the years by researchers and musicians, but this has not had much of an impact on the creation of new work on a larger scale.

Expectations of manufacturing machines a “New” Molière playor, perhaps, Mozart’s “new” opera, captures the headlines, but the creative work of AI is already moving beyond imitation. For me, the most interesting questions involve cooperation, collaboration and new forms of technology. Communication with machines can expand our understanding of our own abilities. Painting changed the way artists saw the world. Conlon Nancarrow’s piano works influenced composers including György Ligeti and Gérard Grisey. New technologies don’t just replace existing art forms; they often change the conditions in which artists think and create.

The most useful information about AI will be practical rather than technical. Machine learning systems are being used for workforce planning, time management, booking management and data analysis. In the creation of the opera itself, AI can be used to analyze the appearance of the scene and improve security. Such programs don’t make headlines, but they can have more long-term effects than AI-generated images.

AI can also be a tool to help reduce waste. Actors spend most of their lives imagining things that don’t exist, and inevitably there’s a little creative experimentation along the way. AI-enhanced forecasting can reduce many of these costs in construction and apparel design. Already, AI tools can superimpose drawings on three-dimensional bodies and allow designers to examine them from any angle, while innovations in VR-driven visualizations are on the rise.

Moral questions remain big. Does it matter if the words of musicians, the words of writers or the works of artists are allowed and misused? It does. If there is a direct benefit to be provided, rules, regulations and protection are important. At the same time, production itself has been dependent on the acquisition of culture, knowledge and past work.

The social, environmental and cultural aspects of machine learning raise questions that every organization must answer, as the representation, access and results of international tours are very difficult for any opera or ballet company.

AI may seem like a sudden invention, but in reality it is part of a continuous development of technology that has taken place over the years. It is also a place where a variety of creative and imaginative voices are important. RBO/SHIFT asks two questions: What can AI do for designers, and what can designers do for the world in the age of AI? As our interaction with machines increases, it may be that, instead of destroying art, AI will lead us to better appreciate, protect and preserve it. In the opera house, stratospheric singing, virtuoso orchestral playing, spectacular scenery, incredible costuming, daring theatrical productions and the power of live human groups are not things that AI opposes.

We can look forward and backward at the same time.

RBO/SHIFT is at the Linbury theater at the Royal Ballet and Opera, London, from 4-7 June.