Elin Kahnov, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Abstract

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has developed at a rapid pace and has entered the music sphere, here understood in a broad sense including music streaming platforms; small and large corporations developing AI models for music creation and listening; and amateur and professional individuals using AI models for music creation and editing. These developments are mainly driven by private companies for the purpose of profit rather than public good, and within engineering circles for the sake of innovation. While such developers claim to “democratize” music practice, these platforms are contributing to a flood of AI-generated music that threatens to deluge streaming platforms with content. My work, situated in the emerging interdisciplinary field of AI Music Studies, aims to theorize how AI is affecting music practices, and to develop methodologies to study this technology and its effects on notions of aesthetics, ethics, identity, and music discourses.

Bio

Elin Kanhov is a music researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and PI of the three-year research project “Musical Entanglements with AI” funded by the Swedish Research Council. The project critically studies the implications of AI on various music practices, including traditional music, more-than-human sound ecologies, and vocal identities, often from a posthumanist feminist perspective.