Many times when one walks through Sónar+D, the conferences and the exhibition area of the electronic music festival, one sees projects that seem out of this world. They are amusing and one thinks they are too far away. But, alas, then years pass and everyone talks about them, some seeing the panacea to problems they didn't even know existed and others feeling completely terrified by any deviation.
This has happened with artificial intelligence (AI), with a first speaker mentioning it in the 2016 edition, seven years ago now, when there was talk of how companies were increasingly using the data happily offered to them for their benefit. A year later, the buzzword was the protagonist of artistic installations and took some prominent presentations, with the participation of Google's AI program director, Kenric McDowell, thinking about how art would be transformed with the use of algorithms, and that of Google Magenta researcher Douglas Eck, analyzing the advances that could also have in the field of music.
From those first steps to this year AI being the great protagonist of Sónar+D. More than 100 projects are part of the exhibition area, with pioneering initiatives such as an AI that judges whoever stands before it, for better or worse, telling you everything but good things if you don't please it. Local artist Maria Arnal has also participated, in collaboration with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), with an AI-based musical tool to overcome the physical limits of the human voice, or the Barcelona startup Krea, the creator of a design platform to create videos and images with AI that is designed for anyone, whether they are professionals or not, and which Pixar has already started to use.
If generally popular trends on stage are what end up being included in the congress and exhibition program, this time, the roles have been reversed. "It started being talked about at Sónar+D and now it's the artists who have incorporated it," explains its curator, Antònia Folguera. In fact, three years ago, when the first edition of AI & Music, a European Commission program to evaluate the relationship between AI and music, was held, they had trouble finding musicians who used this technology in a relevant way. This year, organizing it again, the panorama has completely changed.
Even artists from the Sónar 2024 lineup, like the Iranian Sevdaliza, a regular name at many festivals, including Primavera Sound last year, use it. "AI has become more accessible and has ended up permeating the entire festival. It is very present in society and artists are not impermeable," remarks Folguera, who a few years ago would have thought that virtual reality was going to be the one to become more popular. For those who doubt its use and still find it too futuristic, they can go look for the avatar Laura AI, developed by the Barcelona company Lowkeymoves, who has studied everything that is done at Sónar, including the history of the festival or possible conversation topics thinking about the profile of its attendees, to answer any question, such as when the artist they want to see performs or until what time they will be able to dance. Let's see in a few years who attends at a station when the platform cannot be found.