Musical Entanglements with Artificial Intelligence: Posthumanist Perspectives on Creating, Consuming and Connecting with AI Music

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has developed at a rapid pace, now entering the music sphere.

These developments are driven by private corporations for the purpose of profit rather than public good, and within engineering circles for the sake of innovation. However, studies of the implications of AI music on human creativity and aesthetics have yet to be performed.

The purpose of this project is to critically analyse how humans create, consume and connect with each other through AI music.

The aim is to develop the posthumanist concept of musical entanglements to understand how such music challenges conceptions of what it means to be human in the age of AI, and how these technologies affect how humans as artists, composers, and listeners, become entangled through AI music.

Three studies formalise the concept of musical entanglements, implement it to study how humans become entangled through datasets and algorithms in AI voice models and deepfakes, and explore entanglements in commercial AI music services aimed at music listening and creation experiences. The project uses discourse analysis, music analysis and ethnographic methods.

It enables an analytical approach that reveals how experiences, emotions and values around AI music bring forth new musical expressions and discourses, benefitting future research in the wider creative industry.

The project leader holds a unique position in AI music research and posthumanist studies needed to accomplish this project.