BPI boss Geoff Taylor on AI, music and the technological singularity

"For most of us, the notion of artificial intelligence may conjure up visions of replicants from Ridley Scott's dazzling sci-fi thriller Blade Runner, or the more recent humanoid offerings in Ex-Machina or C4's Humans. Yet AI is no longer the province of science fiction. In many areas of life, computers are now taking decisions or undertaking tasks (such as medical diagnosis or driving cars) that we previously assumed required human judgement and intelligence. The technology has the potential to revolutionise the way we live and to shape the nature of our society. It also raises profound questions about the very essence of consciousness, our identity as humans, morality, and, yes, the Meaning of Life itself. Thankfully those broader questions are beyond the scope of this report, but we feel it is time for us to reflect on the impact that AI technology may have on the music industry – and on music itself. Recorded music is a sector whose DNA is closely entwined with technology, having ...