Kevin Bretz

Today’s generative music systems are one-shot: a prompt goes in, a finished track comes out. Goneis the artist’s subconscious signature, built over years and shaped by taste and the tools at their disposal. This automates the product of music-making while discarding the process of real-time, negotiated interplay through which musicians actually create.
History, however, shows us that artists adapt to new technologies by making them their own. With this context this talk proposes rewiring generative AI from an instrument of automation into a partner in collaboration, the kind you play with rather than prompt. The session will outline the path from offline, one-shot generation toward online systems that can jam with the artist.

Addressing the Rewire! theme, the talk will explain how the connection most worth patching is between artists and machines that play together. It is an open invite to musicians, technologists and researchers to discuss what such an agent must do to earn a place on stage.

Thank you for joining Most Wanted: Music Research! After today’s talks and performances, we invite you to stay for the networking reception focused on music research, industry, and emerging talent.

Continue the conversations, meet fellow creators and thinkers, and celebrate a day of shared curiosity, collaboration, and creative exploration.