Chess was the battle line between humanity and an earlier generation of computers. Garry Kasparov, the then world champion, beat IBM’s Deep Blue in 1996, but succumbed to his digital foe the following year. “I lost my fighting spirit,” Kasparov said after resigning the final match. His white flag was treated as an epochal surrender to computing power. We were checkmated.
In the age of artificial intelligence, music is the new chess, a focal point for anxieties about being toppled by technology. It is the art form most closely, and also mysteriously, linked with emotions. No one knows exactly how music works, the way it can play us like an instrument, moving us to tears or joy. The prospect of it being mastered by another of our creations, AI, touches a nerve. This time the computers are coming for our feelings.
Are these fears justified? I explore that question in a new podcast series for the FT’s Tech Tonic show. I started it as a sceptic, unconvinced by AI hype, and have since spoken with musicians, campaigners and legal experts. Some are in favour of AI music, others are not.