'I realised machine learning could make my musical dreams come true'

Tech innovator and singer Prof Maya Ackerman sees AI as the perfect testing ground for music, where people's creativity can really flourish. While there are many facets of artificial intelligence (AI) that seem destined to takeover our lives, there seems to be fewer pursuits destined to become filled with robots than music. With the meteoric rise of music streaming and its ability to track our music interests, likes and dislikes, music producers have as good a picture as ever of what to make that has a high-percentage chance of topping the charts. However, away from the business end, some researchers and artists are finding ways to use machine learning to create a human/robot collaboration that few would discern is based on an algorithm. One such individual is Prof Maya Ackerman, a leading AI researcher based at the computer engineering department at Santa Clara University in the US.