AI won’t decimate the arts. We must interrogate it, but we can collaborate with it | Classical music
AI won’t decimate the arts. We must interrogate it, but we can collaborate with it | Classical music
Publish Date: 2026-06-02 07:16:00
Source Domain: www.theguardian.com
The disquiet and distrust surrounding artificial intelligence among artists and creatives remain real and consequential, and the language used by leading arts commentators is often apocalyptic: AI will decimate the arts, it is evil, it is the devil. Like many emerging technologies, AI has been driven by the corporations at the forefront of its creation. Introduced to the public at a rapid rate and continuously evolving, machine learning has become closely entwined with fear, antipathy and foreboding. At the same time, its powers and possibilities are expanding exponentially, becoming embedded in almost every aspect of human activity.
The upcoming RBO/SHIFT festival at the Royal Opera House aims to interrogate all sides of this fast-evolving landscape to enable artists, performers, creatives and audiences to think deeply and widely about where we are now, and where we may be tomorrow. Machine learning represents a seismic shift, both in society and in the arts, and we need storytellers, artists, teachers and thinkers in this space to help determine the direction of that shift and help us navigate this unfamiliar territory.
Opera is a particularly good place from which to examine technology. It synthesises multiple art forms – music, visual arts, architecture, poetry, dance, theatre and film – making it both niche and remarkably broad. Opera has also always engaged with technology. From its emergence around 1600, opera makers embraced the latest inventions: pyrotechnics, automata, flying machinery and trapdoors. Later came electric lighting, film, digital media and advanced acoustics. At the same time, opera preserves historic crafts: scenic painting, embroidery, dyeing, the conservation of period instruments and the rediscovery of forgotten repertoires. It is an art form that looks simultaneously backwards and forwards.
The question most frequently asked about AI is whether it will replace people, and concern centres particularly around ownership, consent and…
