"Is AI a Threat to the Creative Professions?" AI and the Music Industry

On November 14, 2023, the NYU Stern Fubon Center for Technology, Business, and Innovation hosted its Demystifying AI Speaker Series Fireside Chat, featuring Dr. Howie Singer, former Senior Vice President and Chief Strategic Technologist at Warner Music, and NYU Stern Professor Foster Provost, Fubon Center Director of the Data Analytics and AI in Business Initiative.
AI is terrifying creative professionals. “The rapid introduction of generative AI systems is seen as an existential threat to the livelihood and continuance of our creative professions …” said the President of the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), at a hearing on May 17, 2023. This is echoed in what we hear about the fears of Hollywood writers and actors. How much of this threat is real and how much imagined? What are the key issues? What about opportunities, in addition to threats?
Dr. Howie Singer is co-author of the new book, Key Changes: The Ten Times Technology has Transformed the Music Industry. He has been immersed in the technological transformations of the music industry for decades: working for 15 years at Warner Music, serving as SVP and Chief Strategic Technologist; as a strategic consultant to Universal Music; as cofounder of a2b music, a pioneering music distribution service started by AT&T, and more. Howie currently advises music companies on the implications of generative AI, and teaches Data Analysis in the Music Industry in NYU’s Music Business program.
Howard Singer
Former SVP and Chief Strategic Technologist, Warner Music. Current Music Adjunct Faculty, NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Foster J. Provost
Ira Rennert Professor of Entrepreneurship; Professor of Technology, Operations, and Statistics and Professor of Data Science
To learn more, please visit the Fubon Center's website: www.stern.nyu.edu/fubon