Anna-Kaisa Kaila 80% seminar

Title: Critical Explorations on the Ethics of Repair in Creative AI

Discussant: Nick Seaver , Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences

Supervisors: André Holzapfel, Bob L. T. Sturm and Cecilia Åsberg

Abstract:

The global market for AI-generated music content is projected to quadruple between 2024 and 2028, with little regulatory oversight. This gold rush to “democratise” artmaking paves the way for grave repercussions for artistic work and is disrupting the political economy of the entire industry. What does all this mean for artists and for music-making practices? How could we approach the development of novel technologies for artmaking from the perspectives of care and repair?

Grounded in repair ethics and critical studies of AI, my thesis examines the conditions of responsible creative AI, with a focus on applications in music. In this seminar, I will outline the empirically situated case studies conducted in the project, including interviews with AI-artists turned (data) gardeners and (latent) space explorers, a study of fairness articulations in singing deepfake applications, and inquiries into the symptoms of data colonialism in the use of public domain music for AI training. The case studies illustrate how the frictions of emerging AI technologies currently manifest in professional artmaking practices, how the conditions of artistic work are being (re)configured, and what role repair work in AI development and deployment could play to cultivate and restore fair market conditions for the arts ecosystem.