Expert Systems: Building a Bridge to Electronic Sonic Art

Symposium:


Session Title:
  • Composition (The Next Generation)

Presentation Title:
  • Expert Systems: Building a Bridge to Electronic Sonic Art

Presenter(s):


Abstract:

  • Abstract

    Despite, or perhaps because of, a healthy skepticism, Artificial Intelligence (Al) has been making quiet progress in electronic arts. Artificial Intelligence has inspired traditional fields of electronic arts as well as it has developed new horizons composition for many artists working in electronic environments. Building on the success and shortcomings of previous experiences with computers in arts, the attempt to extend the paradigm of artificial intelligence systems to the domain of electronic sonic arts is made now. Musicians are increasingly using intelligent machines to deal with tasks for which they are better equipped than humans. Computers are increasingly being used to address the brain-numbing complexity of modern electronic music products and processes, thereby allowing people to concentrate on their music and ideas. Expert systems, for example, help people by searching a book of rules to decide what to do in a particular situation; as machines do not forget, these systems can manage rules more consistently than people. Some musicians are using neural nets, which can recognize complex patterns, to apply precedents that are difficult to express in numbers or words.

    The real challenge facing technology is to recognize the uniqueness of machine intelligence and learn to work with it. Given enough memory, a computer can remember everything that ever happened to it or to anyone else. Furthermore, when faced with a logical problem or a theoretical model of how compositions or sounds should be, computers can deduce more results more quickly than humans. Their complementary strengths should allow man and computer to work together and do things that neither can do separately. Artificial Intelligence has already shown ability to help musicians work and gain access to all the computer power in order to deal with increasingly broad sound projects. The practical uses of Artificial Intelligence, expert systems, are presented and explained, e.g. some of the different ways in which machines can be used for reasoning or processing vision and language data in computer systems to improve the interaction between humans and computers. Central
    to these computers is the element of pattern recognition, an element of human intelligence that can be thought as a kind of a detective that tirelessly collects and recognizes visual and auditory patterns. The ways in which musicians and computational-sound-environment users work with AI are discussed. In tables and sidebars, a glossary is presented; sound applications that benefit from Artificial Intelligence are listed; silicon neurons are described; and the costs and computational densities of the human brain and of expert systems are compared. Artificial Intelligence techniques require a lot of processing power and computer memory, but the driving force behind the use of more intelligent computers is more intelligent artists and computer users. It should be remembered that Artificial Intelligence, like any useful technology, is no panacea, as there are occasions when the technology just does not work or is badly managed.

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