AI and Music - July, 2024

The Digital Hollywood AI Summer Summit

Monday, July 22 - Thursday, July 25, 2024

The Defining Event: The Future of Entertainment, Media & Technology

A Virtual Event • Registration is Free to All Attendees - An Expected Audience of 12,000

• Speakers Note: Some Sessions will be Taped Prior to the Event - Please check with your moderator

The Evening Keynote Roundtables

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024

9:00 PM - 9:50 Eastern Time Zone

Session II:

“AI Music: The New Renaissance. The Leonardo Di Vinci Era for Hypercreatives.” Says Will.i.am
The thought of “AI and Music” can make anyone schizophrenic. Notwithstanding the copywrite and legal concerns, not to mention the ethical, the value of human-created music itself, if you are a musician, a film maker, a producer of any form of creative art, you must acknowledge that “AI and Music,” like a superpower toy, has opened a giant treasure chest of fun and unlimited expectation. In the first two minutes you realize that your inner Mozart, inner BeBop or inner Abba is exploding in front of your eyes. “Where did this come from! I can’t stop. Let’s do it again! And that reminds me . . . !!” Superstar musician and activist Will.i.am has famously called, “AI Music: The New Renaissance. The Leonardo Di Vinci Era for Hypercreatives” and it’s easy to agree. In this session, we will not forget about its ethical and legal problems, but we will primarily focus on "AI Music and Creativity" in our roundtable of spectacular musicians and producers in an exploration of music and artificial intelligence.

The Complete Conference Agenda (The Daytime Events)

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024

Noon – 12:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session II:

A Meditation on Bad Hollywood: A Warning from the Creative Community – “Is the Future Synthetic Entertainment”
While the “Strikes” of 2023 may have been settled, with a well negotiated and robust consideration of all things AI, nevertheless, even with the AI guardrails in place, the feeling among creatives and for good reason, continues as the “unknown impact” of AI remains front and center in our industry and for the future of creativity and entertainment. Reflecting on this past year’s “Writers’ and SAG-AFTRA Strike,” Justine Bateman, was one among many in Hollywood expressing concern for our coming “Synthetic Entertainment Future.” To quote from her Newsweek article, Bateman was passionate and direct, “AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, but I refer to it as "Automatic Imitation." In short, AI is an algorithm that is fed a wealth of information and given a task, and it then delivers the result based on the information it's been fed . . . AI is being used in the Arts for greed, trained on all our past work.” In this session, we will continue the conversation concerning “All-Things AI,” the conversation that likely will never end.

Session III:

Generative AI and Cinematic Hollywood: The Transformation of the Media Industry

While full AI video production hasn’t quite arrived, each week it seems that OpenAI debuts another generation of Sora and Pika one ups them with Audio software to lip-synch with the new video clips and another billion dollar investment is announced for a Virtual Humanoid company. And that was all in a three day stretch in March of 2024. And that’s not counting the Pro AI Music Generators from Google, Adobe and Meta and to paraphrase Stability AI’s CEO, “Emad Mostaque, "It has become possible to imagine an AI-generated new season of "Game of Thrones.” It with that thought in mind that we address the future of AI and Hollywood with our esteemed panel.

1 PM – 1:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

As Johnny Rotten Might Say: AI Music – Bollocks Sí or Bollocks No?

Some say, AI is different. This technology may be black magic and maybe they’re right. But what about Sampling and Looping, Sequencers, Drum Machines and Beat Makers, Software synths and the Moog. How about the first time you became aware of the Wah Wah pedal? Does the music of Hendrix, Clapton or Zappa come to mind? The magical world of “Music and Technology” has enabled and enhanced the greatest of our popular musicians and producers for more than half a century. What is the role of the “Recorder Producer?” What about “The Wall of Sound?” What are the Beatles without George Martin, the master of “Audio Wizardry!” What would Johnny Rotten say about “Music and AI.” Let’s discuss.

2 PM – 2:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session II:

AI and Identity Theft - A Taylor Swift Law – The Deep Fake Dilemma

“Deep Fakes” are not only a theft of property rights and a concern of Musicians and Hollywood personalities, bad-actors are scheming new, inventive and technologically bizarre ways to invade our privacy, our computer data and ultimately our electronic wallets. This is not a false alarm. While a “Taylor Swift Law” is needed to protect the personage of a pop star, it may be even more important to secure the personal electronic rights of everyday citizens. Recently in Hong Kong, a “Deep Fake” scheme successfully defrauded an investment company of $25 Million in a fraudulent Zoom call with visual impersonators representing colleagues. That Zoom call might have been you and a “Deep Faked” family member.

3 PM – 3:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session III:

The Art of the “Sphere:” An Exposition of Vision & Experience - A Discussion of Immense Creativity

The designers of “The Sphere” have produced an “Immersive Experience” that is at once magical and thrilling. Audience members announce their plans to attend, post photos of the “Sphere” upon arrival and gush about the experience in long posts on “Social Media.” Is there any “Entertainment Experience” in our lifetime to compare? In concert with The Stones or Taylor Swift? Perhaps better if The Stones or Taylor booked into the “Sphere.” The Sphere has splurged $2.3B on special cameras and 164,000 isolated speakers to create this incredible display and that doesn’t count the “Exosphere,” the video-powered shell that is now an “Iconic Las Vegas Landmark.” In this session we will discuss the amazing “Sphere.”

4 PM – 4:40 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

The Best in Virtual Humans and Synths: Influencers, Performers & Companions

Call them Synths; call them Virtual Human Celebrities, influencers and performers going by names such as Lil Miquela, Lu do Magalu, Barbi, Guggimon, Any Malu or Milla Sofia. According to her Instagram account, Lil Miquela is a half-Spanish, half-Brazilian 19 year old Robot living in LA with 2.6m followers. Lu do Magalu, another Brazilian influencer has 6.8M followers. She is used by Brazilian retailer, “Magazine Luiza” for various campaigns and has partnered with big brands, including Adidas, McDonald's and Red Bull. There are AI Internet Girlfriend platforms named Replika, Candy AI and DreamGF and Virtual Singers and Performers are in the pipeline with the backing of major organizations. What are we to make of this phenomenon? “Barbi” afterall started out as a “Children’s Doll” over a half century ago and now as a “Movie Star” and “Virtual Human” has become a “Global Phenomenon.” With that in mind, perhaps the “Cultural Narrative” of “Synths” and “Virtual Humans as Celebrities” has yet to be decided.

Session II:

AI Music Monetization: DeepMind’s Dreamtrack, The Grimes AI Strategy: Let’s Go 50-50%

There’s no way to slow down the explosion of AI created music. It’s here, it’s now and everyone, young and old have become AI Sound Engineers by the hundreds of thousands. So as the ocean of new music arrives, the idea of “AI Music & Monetization” has now become front and center. For example, Google’s DeepMind recently unveiled DreamTrack, an AI system allowing customizable music generation via text prompts. Their partnership with the music label EMI hints at future platforms streamlining rights-cleared AI music tailored to user taste. Such tools could enable independent musicians, creative agencies, and brands to license bespoke soundtracks on-demand. Along the same lines, the famous musician Grimes is exploring equally disruptive models, granting fans collective ownership in her AI-assisted compositions through NFTs and decentralization. It’s only the start, but with music AI software getting better and better, the market is ripe for legal monetization strategies to emerge.

Session III:

AI & the Creative Community – Representing the Interest of Actors - Writers - Producers - Guild Members

While the Hollywood strikes last year may now be old news, the concerns of the Guild membership, the writers and actors are far from settled. After all, creative concerns cannot always be resolved through arbitration and legal settlement. The underlying issues of Artificial Intelligence, from Deep Fakes, Virtual Humans and the ultimate ability of the AI to reason, think and author creative works is far from settled fact. Who among us can say what the future might hold. For those of you who have tried AI or perhaps have even become “Expert” in AI application, you are aware of the problems it may present. AI can as easily violate copyright of everything from image to story to voice as it can enhance the creativity of the most sophisticated artist. This our world to explore.

5:00 PM – 5:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session II:

The Elvis Act: The Tennessee Deep Fake 2024 Law

Is this the first of many, a prelude to a “Federal Law” or an interesting step to secure the “Individual Rights in the face of Deep Fakes,” serving as a bellwether for future legislation, but ultimately not the final word on the subject. Tennessee’s “Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act” passed earlier by their state legislature this year and exclusively limited to Tennessee residents is directed specifically to the issues of “Deep Fakes” and to the protection of Recording Artists and others impacted by “Voice Cloning” and other AI technologies. In this session, our speakers will address the specifics of “The Elvis Act,” with the thought that this piece of legislation is likely a “Canary in a Coal Mine,” one of the first legislative steps that may indicate of how public and political sympathies could be harbingers of AI legislation and legal decisions coming in the future.

Session III:

Prompt Engineers – Mastering the Art of Cinematic AI Design & Music Composition

Each of us has faced down the “Empty Prompt Bar” trying to communicate with the AI, hoping to tease out an unusual photographic image or develop a dramatic scene in a film script through a series of ping pong like prompts and replies, like personal letters to an unknown companion with the hope of reaching a higher state of consciousness. The role of “Prompt Master” represents a novel creative discipline, perhaps not an art form, but something approaching a digital choreographer. There must always be a goal, a cinematic visual experience, a classical musical score, perhaps a string quartet. The job requires that we constantly produce a quality result, but if we can engage with a brilliant “Co-Pilot,” the creative process may be that much more pleasurable. But learning to communicate with the “Unknown Creative Mind,” to speak to it in a private code that will produce a fully professional and even artistic experience. That may be the work of an artist, the work of the “Prompt Master.”

Wednesday, July 24^th, 2024

Noon – 12:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone
Session III:

Is AI Music the Piracy Machine? As Brian May has Stated, “It’s Gonna Get Very Weird Very Quick”
Let's take an AI Music test. Google “Best in AI Music Deep Fakes” and you will be taken on an amazing tour of “Music Imposters,” including “Deep Fakes” of Britney Spears, Frank Sinatra singing obscene Rap Lyrics; the infamous Drake/The Weeknd, “Heart on My Sleeve” having become a massive hit in a few days and Freddie Mercury singing "All I Want for Christmas,” a “Perfect Clone” of a Queen performance. And the technology behind AI song generators are becoming dangerously professional. It’s no wonder that Brian May, Queen’s lead guitarist and song writer is quoted having said, “It’s Gonna Get Very Weird Very Quick.” Music is always the artform first impacted by the combination of technology and the Internet because it does not require extensive bandwidth. In this session we bring together some of the best in the music business.

1 – 1:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

AI Music and Creatives: A Relationship of Abundance and Trepidation

For the musician, solo artist, producer or A&R executive, the arrival in all its glory of “AI technology” is akin to the second coming of Napster. Napster arrived in 1999 and within a year or so effectively wiped out the “Record Industry” as it was then fashioned. And it has taken a couple of generations of musicians and technology to assemble a new and “more or less” thriving industry. Today, there is a massive listening audience, well designed and music friendly internet and mobile platforms, year-round and flourishing “Live Performance” opportunities and tons of “Merch.” And into this mix has arrived AI, the technology “Superpower” that makes “Synths” and "Drum Kits” look primitive. In this roundtable of “Creatives” we will explore our hesitancy to embrace AI, come clean in discussing the obvious dangers of copyright and “Deep Fake” while also grappling with the “Power of AI” as a “Creativity Tool.”

Session II:

Monetizing Immersive Hollywood, Music & Sports = AI + XR + Live Events

Global brands, social engagement, live events, immersive experiences, cross platform strategies; this is the electronic frontier of the future, where growth and commerce converge. It’s hard not to get excited by the next generation of platform and technological convergence. In this session we will analyze the landscape and attempt to define the ground rules. Enhanced brand loyalty, content innovation and better product are prerequisites for “Monetizing the Consumer Relationship.” The super competitive film/video, sports, Web3, and social media markets are in play 24/7. And it’s about execution & innovation of live events, the cinematic or video experience and the AI and XR investment that matters. But finally, it’s creativity, the “It Factor” which makes the difference.

2 PM – 2:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session IV:

The AI Pro-Audio Studio: Toolsets for Professional Producer and Musician

Just like walking into a Recording studio, the Pro-AI Producer knows exactly how to match-up the right tools with the right task. And let’s appropriately name our AI Musical Toolset after one of the greats, the “Abbey Road AI,” or the “QuincyAI,” the “RickRubot,"or "PharrellAI." Here is a breakdown of our AI Pro-Audio Studio: Into the Check-out Cart: (1) Best in AI-Assisted Original Melodies: Mubert, Soundful, Aiva, Boomy, and Beatoven; (2) For the Best in AI-Assisted Synths: Guk.AI's Sistema 2, for crafting unique soundscapes; SynthGPT, AI-driven text-prompt-based sound engine and Synthesizer V Studio Pro, with AI-powered advanced vocal synthesis capabilities. (3) For Best in Drum Machine: AIVA, Boomy, and Amper Music and for advanced “Neural Drum Machines Companies” Let’s check out Fugue Machine, XO, Microtonic, and Nerve. For Best in Vocal Isolation: VocalRemover.org; Deepgram's Kits AI and PhonicMind: For Best in Organic Reverb: AIVA, Amper Music, and Sonible Smart:Reverb; For the Best in AI Mastering Suite: LANDR; eMastered; Sonible smart:master; Amuse Mastering

3 PM - 3:50 PM

Session II:

The State of Generative AI Law: The Precedents – The Cases Currently in Progress

The illustrious history of copyright infringement lawsuits are filled with fascinating results. Most recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Andy Warhol infringed on photographer Lynn Goldsmith's copyright when he created a series of his famous silk screen images based on a photograph Goldsmith shot of the late musician Prince in 1981. So it is with great interest that the “AI Training Data” lawsuits make their way through the courts, The NY Times vs. OpenAI and Microsoft; Getty Images against Stability AI; a Class Action lawsuit filed against Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt; a Programmers’ Class Action against Github among others. In this session, discuss status of “Copyright Law.”

5 PM – 5:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

AI-XR: The Spatial Experience - Exploring Next Level Human Interaction

While AI has become the convenient “Umbrella Concept” under which all other computer platforms can be best understood, with the release of Apple Vision Pro and Meta’s industry leading Quest 2, the conversation has centered around VR, Gaming and the latest buzzword, Spatial Computing. For industry cognoscente, the goal has always been “Immersion,” platform agnostic, mobile, computer, gaming, in any environment, on any device. Apple refers to its AVP introduction as “Spatial Computing” and the developers of XR, VR and AR experiences will likely be pleased to embrace this descriptive note. With the power of AI, advanced connectivity through “The Cloud” and with continued device innovation, we will all be pleased to welcome the “Era of Spatial Computing.”

Session II:

AI Produced Music Videos are Here - The AI Canary in the Coal Mine

Tech innovation concentrates first in the “Music Industry.” It is as simple as that. Generative AI is totally and fully capable of producing highly creative audio and short form cinematic video. And it is simply not yet ready, to produce fully realized long form film and TV. Thus, on this panel we will focus on the creation of “AI Empowered Music Videos” that are innovative, inspired and nothing short of spectacular. We will discuss production techniques and demo some of the best yet produced. In the 1980s, after MTV kicked off the “Music Video Revolution” with "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles and DEVO's great music video, "Whip It," the world was never quite the same. The same will likely be said of the AI Empowered Music Videos of 2024. The world will never quite be the same again!

Thursday, July 25^th, 2024

Noon – 12:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

IMO – The Most Important AI Cinematic Movie Shorts in the past 6 Months

The “In My Opinion Roundtables” will bring to life the daily and sometimes hourly ongoing discussions of AI, technology and creativity as represented on “Media,” and “Social Media” platforms. And it often the first thing the AI and creative industries read to jumpstart the day. Across the board, independent technologists and academics, artists and creatives, journalists and opinion writers create the “Lifeblood Discussion” in all matters of AI, creativity, art and tech innovation. In this, the first roundtable of the day, the topic is Cinematic AI, Innovative Movies, Music Videos, Video Experiments and Special Effects. The speakers participating in this roundtable will not be unlike the viewers in our virtual audience, they will all be participants in the daily conversation at the core of what we might call, the “IMO In My Opinion” global community.

Session III:

The Best in AI Music: Pro Reviews: Musicians, Techies, Critics

In this session, we bring together musicians, producers, craftsmen, and software developers to better understand “AI and Music,” and the role it is playing in the trajectory and future of music creation. Is the professional use of AI substantially different from the impact of synthesizers, drum machines, and other electronic gear on the music of the 1970s and 80s? Obviously, AI can generate original composition, melodies and lyrics, and flex its technological muscles in musical creation and there is no question that the professional musician and producer can use it to great effect in day-to-day work. But music and art denote emotion and passion that come from the human experience. The AI might be able to mimic Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, but can an AI synthesize a musician and musical creations of that order?

2 – 2:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

IMO: “In My Opinion” AI & Technology on YouTube: A Major Media Category of its Own

While YouTube may be the platform for movies, music, sports, and deep dives into every facet of humanity, it is overwhelmingly the home of everything technology, from fifteen-minute product reviews to hour-long podcasts on the most complex and groundbreaking innovation in Artificial Intelligence. YouTube has replaced the influence of tech writers at newspapers and magazines. In fact, YouTube also functions as a “University Program” in technology. Hundreds of thousands of YouTube viewers have “Learned to Code” on YouTube. One day there will be an Academy Awards for Tech Influencers or Tech Podcasters, or Deep Dive Tech Lecturers or Technology Artists. For today, we are pleased to welcome a group of renown technology experts and innovators who regularly post on YouTube.

Session: II:

A Demo: AI Artists and Photographers “Train” their own “Themed Model Sets”

Here’s something for artists and photographers to consider, training your own “AI Neural Network” with the digitized library of your life’s artistic work. In the end, an AI could explore that universe of imagery, the sum-total of your imagination, and create new and unique visual or audio and visual experiences. What if the Andy Warhol collection of sketches, interviews, silk screens, movies, video, and other Warhol artifacts were “Trained” in a Neural Network Architecture, a Warhol GAN, so that the AI would internalize the nuances, colors, stylistic flourishes and idiosyncratic ideas and subtleties in Warhol's style. Over time and through some months or years of trial and error, of artistic and other unique data set experimentation, a new AI Language of Andy Warhol would begin to emerge. It might be very different from the Warhol we know, but it also might be equally unique.

3 – 3:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

IMO – The Best in Humor and Satire, Deep Fake Music, Girlfriends, Avatars or other AI Meme Phenomena this Past Year

Question does an “AI Girlfriend” count as a “Deep Fake,” because she’s definitely a “Virtual Human,” but she’s also convincing and a perfect replica of a famous movie star. Swipe right for sure. And is the Meme version of Donald Trump, closer to the real one than the original? Or did Donald Trump actually perform in a “Bollywood Musical” and dance with a cast of hundreds? In this session, we’ll try to smoke out what’s real and who actually faked Frank Sinatra smoothy singing down and dirty rap lyrics. AI has opened the door to satire that is sending folks around the bend. Did the Beatles ever sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and did Paul Simon ever cover “Strawberry Fields.” It was just announced that the “Bohemian Rhapsody, Celebrity AI Cover Show” has more views on TikTok than Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” Is that real? But in the end, is AI humor ultimately any different from “The Bachelorette” or “Bachelor in Paradise?”

4 – 4:50 PM - Eastern Time Zone

The AI Creativity Co-Pilot: Miles, Kubrick, Coltrane, Scorsese & David Bowie by your Side

AI may not be able to create a symphony, inventing the arc of a significant film project or improvise sophisticated jazz, but it can be “Trained” to the entire film, music and artistic libraries and associated materials, including film, video, text and music of all the great artists in history. In addition, it can be “Trained” to understand how to break down screenplay elements, character development and emotional range, scene by scene, film by film, so that at the end of the many months long process of “Training” on the works of Stanley Kubrick and John Coltrane, one might have successfully created an AI that can approximate and converse in the “Language” of the masters. The AI might not be able to create a product that looks or feels like a work produced by one of the greats, but for a creative professional, such a “Co-Pilot” might become an indispensable aide and remarkable addition to the creative process.

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