Berklee College tackles AI in music industry in symposium

Berklee College of Music hosts its first symposium on AI and music this week.

The big picture: AI stands to revolutionize how people make music, expanding access to production tools and sparking creativity, says Jonathan Wyner, a music production and engineering professor at Berklee professor and conference organizer.

• But it could also breed mediocrity, kill jobs and enable labels to steal musicians' voices.
• The symposium organizers want to gather music, tech and policy leaders to find a consensus on how to capitalize on and regulate AI in the music industry.

State of play: The symposium, organized by the music school and the Audio Engineering Society, runs Thursday through Saturday on campus.

• The keynote speakers are composer Tod Machover and research scientist Anna Huang.
• Machover is known for making the robot opera "Death and Powers." Huang, who joins the MIT faculty in the fall, is the organizer of the annual " AI Song Contest ."
• Other speakers will discuss copyright law, AI in sonic art and teaching with AI.

What they're saying: "My goal for the event is to bring together the AI maximalists and the AI deniers, bringing the pros and the cons together and get them talking to each other," Wyner says.

• Hopefully, he says, it will lead to working groups and efforts to update policy and improve user experience.

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