Unfinished

The Role of the Artist in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

De: Lucas Cantor Santiago

Narrado por: Christopher Ragland

Bloomsbury presents Unfinished by by Lucas Cantor Santiago, read by Christopher Ragland.

For most of his career, the Emmy Award–winning composer and producer Lucas Cantor Santiago was a self-described luddite. Technology, he felt, was moving too fast, transforming the world and the arts with no regard for the cost in tradition, hard-won human wisdom, and tried-and-true methods of mastery.

That changed, however, when Cantor Santiago was commissioned by Huawei, one of the largest technology companies on the planet, to collaborate with artificial intelligence and finish Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony—a successful experiment that attracted attention throughout the world. Creating music in collaboration with a machine led him to question his long-standing assumptions about what music is, what technology does, and how the two have evolved together over the course of human history, from the first bone flute to today’s landscape of constant innovation and change.

Drawing on Cantor Santiago’s extensive experience in the arts and tech worlds and his ongoing experiments with AI-powered music making, Unfinished is an engaging and refreshingly optimistic meditation on the role of technology in music and the arts. What is the current state of the art? How did we get here? Where do we go now? This book provides an informed perspective on what is lost but what we also gain when we bring our machines ever further into the creation of art in its many different forms.©2023 Lucas Cantor Santiago (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Reseñas de la Crítica

A thoughtful analysis of the relationship between music, musicians, and AI.

Only time will tell whether AI, this latest in civilizational toys, will turn out to be more Gutenberg press or atomic weapon, but one thing is for sure: we will rely on voices of reason to shepherd us through the fog and signpost the journey. Using our world of film music as a backdrop, Lucas Cantor Santiago wrestles with some of the most pressing questions of our time. Lucas has carved a unique career for himself, operating at the frontier where technology and music meet, and has brought us a bounty of expertise and playful insight that makes for a fascinating read.

In a remarkable mix of autobiography, philosophy, and technical detail, industry insider Lucas Cantor Santiago’s Unfinished weaves a spellbinding account of what happened—and will happen—to the business of both capturing and creating music over the next sixty years.

If you’re worried about what AI means for human creativity, read this book. It will make you feel better. Lucas Cantor Santiago has spent decades using technology to make art. In Unfinished, he shows us that music and technology have always evolved together, and he explains how that evolution will continue in the age of AI.

In Unfinished, Lucas Cantor Santiago reminds us that artificial intelligence is a tool, not a rival, empowering artists to push the boundaries of creativity while staying true to the human spirit. The future of art isn’t about replacement; it’s about reinvention.

Lucas is thinking about AI and music the way we all we should: with a mix of excitement, curiosity, and caution. In this super-engaging (and even funny!) read, I learned more about music, AI, and how an artist can harness AI for good.

The world is full of theories about human-AI partnerships. Here you have a book—charming, surprising, illuminating—that goes beyond the certainties of theory to find the possibilities of practice

Lucas Cantor Santiago has written a book about AI and music that is both timely and reassuring. He reminds us that new technology, from the primitive bone flute to Hans Zimmer’s powerful computer rigs, has always enabled humans to create new sounds and invent fresh musical languages. This is an accessible and entertaining book fizzing with ideas and insights that should be read by musicians, music fans, and policymakers who want to understand the implications of AI for the future soundtrack of humankind.

The AI discourse is full of people who will explain it all to you without knowing the first thing about it. That's why Lucas Cantor Santiago's Unfinished is so necessary. Having used AI to finish Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Cantor has learned about AI by doing, and his book reveals the strengths and the limits of the new technology more thoroughly than a dozen empty prophets.