AI won’t decimate the arts. We must interrogate it, but we can collaborate with it | Classical music

Disquiet and distrust surrounding AI, driven by corporations, have evoked apocalyptic language from arts commentators.
The RBO/SHIFT festival aims to explore both the threats and possibilities of AI in the arts, focusing on collaboration, new artistic forms, and the impact on society.
Opera serves as a unique lens to examine technology, having historically engaged with and preserved technological advances and traditional crafts.
Questions regarding AI’s potential to replace human roles in the arts are significant, particularly concerning ownership and consent, but the full impact remains complex.
AI’s practical applications, such as efficiency improvements in workforce planning and operational data analysis within opera, may have greater long-term impact than creative outputs.
The ethics surrounding AI’s appropriation and misuse of artistic creations emphasize the need for legislation, controls, and protections while recognizing creativity’s dependence on cultural access.
AI integration in technology raises broader ethical, environmental, and social implications that institutions must address.
The interaction with machines may elevate the value and protection of the arts rather than decimate them, offering a potential symbiotic relationship.