Italian DJ and producer Ciauru has won the Reply AI Music Contest, a competition designed to reward "experimentation across AI, music and live performance".
He took home the prize after performing at Kappa FuturFestival in Torino, alongside four other finalists selected by an international jury. His winning project, titled Raw Botanical Data, used platforms such as Krea.ai, SeeDance, and Higgsfield to turn video footage into "impossible movements, recursive spatial structures and unstable textures".
According to Ciauru, whose real name is Simone Privitera, "Artificial intelligence is not necessarily a danger or an obstacle. In this case, I used it creatively: everything started from the hand of a human being, who guided 90% of the work." (Musically)
1,400 projects were reportedly sent to Reply ahead of the contest, and it ultimately took a creative with genuine pedigree to come out on top: Privitera has previously worked with various high-profile artists including Italian electro house heavyweight Benny Benassi, Dutch DJ Don Diablo and American super producer Steve Aoki.
That being said, Privitera's decision to dive headfirst into the controversial world of AI music would be frowned on by many within the industry.
The Association for Electronic Music's Chief Strategy Officer Jay Ahern recently warned of the dangers of AI being used for "the wholesale ripping of people's creative works" (MusicRadar), while the recent formation of the anti-AI band The Bootleg Velvet Sundown shows the lengths some artists are willing to go to protect live instrumentalists and reject artificial intelligence in music.
"AI was very useful in speeding up a process that would otherwise have taken me much longer," Privitera said. " I hope that more and more emerging artists decide to take part [in this contest], because creating connections with platforms like this through initiatives of this kind is not only possible, but also extremely effective."
