The Jacobs School of Music will begin its third annual “AlgoRhythms: AI, Music, and Human-Centered Creativity” conference Thursday, partnering with the Maurer School of Law, IU Innovates, Music Tectonics and the AI and Digital Futures Team to host a variety of events until Saturday. The sessions will explore the intersection of AI and music.
The conference began in 2024 when Alain Barker, director of Jacobs’ Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development, aimed to create a conversation at Jacobs around artificial intelligence and its musical uses.
He cultivated the conference to resemble other events like Music Tectonics, a similar conference hosted in Santa Monica, California, that meets annually to examine music and technology. Dmitri Vietze runs Music Tectonics and has known Barker for over 20 years since the two first met at IU.
“I think it’s great for students. I think it is great for faculty to be able to have the kind of opportunity to hear from the same types of people who are speaking at Music Tectonics, South by Southwest, the Music Biz conference,” Vietze said. “It’s cool that he’s creating access here.”
Vietze is also a keynote speaker and will be presenting “Is Music Making Up for Grabs?” on Saturday. He will contribute to the long conversation of technological innovation within the music industry.
"AlgoRhythms” will begin at noon Thursday with “A Conversation on Legal Trends in Music & AI,” with Dan Amin, assistant chief counsel at Lucasfilm, and Robert Meitus, legal partner at Meitus Strohm LLP.
Kayla Behforouz, a third-year student at IU’s Maurer School of Law, has worked closely with Meitus to craft the legal discussion for the conference. Behforouz said Meitus Strohm LLP aims to launch more of a conversation around copyright law and AI, with the firm as a whole leaning more toward artists’ rights.
“We explore all of the questions of copyright law with regard to what happens when music is trained, when AIs are trained on music, and what happens when you use AI to create your music then you release it on Spotify,” Behforouz said.
After Meitus and Amin’s discussion Thursday, Behforouz will moderate a panel titled “The Law’s Role in Forming Creative Norms.” Then, the day will end with another panel discussion about authenticity and AI music creation.
The conference continues Friday with “A Music Technology Playground” as organizations including Sweetwater and PetsAloud participate in presentations, research and student projects throughout the day.
Saturday will feature six discussions beginning at 9 a.m. with “Business Transformation in the Music AI World” and ending at 4 p.m. with “Creativity in AI: Understanding the Known & Unknown.”
Through these discussions, “AlgoRhythms” will showcase a variety of opinions and thoughts about the uses of AI in music, involving individuals from different disciplines and fields.
Adam Neely, a musician and YouTube commentator, will be coming to the “AlgoRhythms” conference for the first time Thursday. He was invited to speak after he created a video titled “Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future,” sharing his complicated views about the company and AI.
Neely said he’s excited to speak to people with conflicting perspectives on AI and hopes to expand his own view on the subject.
“I’m in a bubble, and I feel like everybody is in a bubble. I’m in a bubble of people who are very anti-AI,” Neely said. “I’ve argued on the internet with many people who are defenders of AI, but that’s something very different than being in person and having conversations with people who are my peers and colleagues and people who have very different kinds of worldviews.”
