TECHNOLOGY

Artificial Intelligence as a Musical Collaborator Has Entered the Mainstream

Published

5 months ago

June 26, 2023

Artificial Intelligence as a Musical Collaborator Has Entered the Mainstream

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, responsible for the Grammy Awards, has recently allowed artificial intelligence (AI) to contribute up to 80% of the content for music eligible for their awards, signaling a new era of AI-enhanced creativity.

While AI cannot truly comprehend the human condition, it serves as a potent tool to extend human creative capabilities. Examples include creating new soundscapes and extracting and replicating styles from past artists. However, for a piece to be Grammy-eligible, a ‘meaningful’ human contribution is still mandatory, with AI viewed as a collaborator rather than a replacement. As we venture further into this creative era, we may push the boundaries of AI in music but may find that the essence of creativity remains a uniquely human domain. This transition is seen not as a threat to human creativity but as a revolutionary opportunity for artistic evolution.

We stand on the brink of an exciting new world of creativity. We have already witnessed a shift in technology that allowed artists to create breathtaking images with powerful computer prompts. Now, we stand on the precipice of an even greater shift. The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences is the institution behind the coveted Grammy Awards, has ignited discussions across the globe with its recent ruling that artificial intelligence may now contribute to up to 80% of music content eligible for their awards. With this, we welcome the dawn of the ‘creative era.’

First, let’s take a step back and remember that technology has always been an enabler of creativity. From the invention of the piano to the modern recording studio, every new development has opened up new avenues for artists to express themselves. It has allowed them to push the boundaries of their craft and given them tools to convey their stories more effectively and powerfully. AI is just the latest in this long line of technological enablers, albeit a potent one.

The truth is, much of today’s music, whether recently created or steeped in the past, has been technologically augmented. With AI entering the fray, the possibilities multiply. Artists can now collaborate with AI to create entirely new soundscapes. For instance, the announcement of a forthcoming “last Beatles record,” composed using AI to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo, points towards an exhilarating, if a little intimidating, future. A future where AI can dissect, learn, and replicate styles from the greatest artists of our times and the past. A future where the boundaries of creativity are virtually nonexistent.

However, as we embrace this new ‘creative era,’ it’s important to remember that artistry — in this Grammy context — inherently human. The Academy underscores this sentiment in their new ruling. While AI can contribute up to 80% of the work, the human touch remains essential. A “meaningful” human contribution to the music and/or lyrics is mandatory for eligibility. Thus, AI acts as a collaborator, not a replacement for the human artist. This balance ensures that the heart of music — human emotion, narrative, and experience — remains intact. But the question emerges: what is a meaningful contribution?

As we advance further into this new era, it’s worth pondering the potential of AI in terms of its competence in composing music that rivals, or even surpasses, human creativity. We’ve seen AI evolve remarkably over the years, mastering complex tasks, solving intricate problems, and even creating music that has left listeners awestruck. Could there be a time when AI’s musical compositions outshine those of its human counterparts? It’s a thought that’s as exhilarating as it is unsettling.

However, it’s crucial to note that AI operates based on patterns and algorithms. It can dissect a Beethoven symphony, understand the complexities of jazz, or create a catchy pop melody by analyzing millions of songs. Yet, it’s unable to truly comprehend the human condition, the source from which art, including music, primarily draws its essence.

Therein may lie an asymptote or a threshold that technology could push up against but never cross. The very heart of music — its ability to capture and convey emotion, to tell stories, to connect with the listener on a profound, personal level — is arguably a uniquely human capability. It’s the product of lived experiences, of love and loss, of joy and despair, of a million little moments that make up a human life. AI, for all its astounding capabilities, lacks this existential depth. It can simulate, but it cannot truly feel.

This doesn’t diminish AI’s potential but rather frames it. In the grand orchestra of creativity, AI may well play a leading role, but it’s the human spirit that will continue to conduct the symphony. Thus, as we push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI in music, we might find that the heart of creativity remains a distinctly human domain, an uncrossable threshold, even in this rapidly advancing creative era.As we move further into this ‘creative era,’ we must view AI not as a threat but as an opportunity. Just as previous technological advancements have done, AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we create and appreciate music. It offers us a fresh perspective, an untouched canvas, a new verse in the ever-evolving song of human creativity.

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TECHNOLOGY

HCLTech and Cisco create collaborative hybrid workplaces

Published

1 day ago

November 29, 2023

Max

Digital comms specialist Cisco and global tech firm HCLTech have teamed up to launch Meeting-Rooms-as-a-Service (MRaaS).

Available on a subscription model, this solution modernises legacy meeting rooms and enables users to join meetings from any meeting solution provider using Webex devices.

The MRaaS solution helps enterprises simplify the design, implementation and maintenance of integrated meeting rooms, enabling seamless collaboration for their globally distributed hybrid workforces.

Rakshit Ghura, senior VP and Global head of digital workplace services, HCLTech, said: “MRaaS combines our consulting and managed services expertise with Cisco’s proficiency in Webex devices to change the way employees conceptualise, organise and interact in a collaborative environment for a modern hybrid work model.

“The common vision of our partnership is to elevate the collaboration experience at work and drive productivity through modern meeting rooms.”

Alexandra Zagury, VP of partner managed and as-a-Service Sales at Cisco, said: “Our partnership with HCLTech helps our clients transform their offices through cost-effective managed services that support the ongoing evolution of workspaces.

“As we reimagine the modern office, we are making it easier to support collaboration and productivity among workers, whether they are in the office or elsewhere.”

Cisco’s Webex collaboration devices harness the power of artificial intelligence to offer intuitive, seamless collaboration experiences, enabling meeting rooms with smart features such as meeting zones, intelligent people framing, optimised attendee audio and background noise removal, among others.

Want to learn more about cybersecurity and the cloud from industry leaders? Check out Cyber Security & Cloud Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars powered by TechForge here.

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, HCLTech, Hybrid, meetings

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TECHNOLOGY

Canonical releases low-touch private cloud MicroCloud

Published

2 days ago

November 28, 2023

Max

Canonical has announced the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical’s growing cloud infrastructure portfolio.

It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node.

MicroClouds are optimised for repeatable and reliable remote deployments. A single command initiates the orchestration and clustering of various components with minimal involvement by the user, resulting in a fully functional cloud within minutes. This simplified deployment process significantly reduces the barrier to entry, putting a production-grade cloud at everyone’s fingertips.

Juan Manuel Ventura, head of architectures & technologies at Spindox, said: “Cloud computing is not only about technology, it’s the beating heart of any modern industrial transformation, driving agility and innovation. Our mission is to provide our customers with the most effective ways to innovate and bring value; having a complexity-free cloud infrastructure is one important piece of that puzzle. With MicroCloud, the focus shifts away from struggling with cloud operations to solving real business challenges” says

In addition to seamless deployment, MicroCloud prioritises security and ease of maintenance. All MicroCloud components are built with strict confinement for increased security, with over-the-air transactional updates that preserve data and roll back on errors automatically. Upgrades to newer versions are handled automatically and without downtime, with the mechanisms to hold or schedule them as needed.

With this approach, MicroCloud caters to both on-premise clouds but also edge deployments at remote locations, allowing organisations to use the same infrastructure primitives and services wherever they are needed. It is suitable for business-in-branch office locations or industrial use inside a factory, as well as distributed locations where the focus is on replicability and unattended operations.

Cedric Gegout, VP of product at Canonical, said: “As data becomes more distributed, the infrastructure has to follow. Cloud computing is now distributed, spanning across data centres, far and near edge computing appliances. MicroCloud is our answer to that.

“By packaging known infrastructure primitives in a portable and unattended way, we are delivering a simpler, more prescriptive cloud experience that makes zero-ops a reality for many Industries.“

MicroCloud’s lightweight architecture makes it usable on both commodity and high-end hardware, with several ways to further reduce its footprint depending on your workload needs. In addition to the standard Ubuntu Server or Desktop, MicroClouds can be run on Ubuntu Core – a lightweight OS optimised for the edge. With Ubuntu Core, MicroClouds are a perfect solution for far-edge locations with limited computing capabilities. Users can choose to run their workloads using Kubernetes or via system containers. System containers based on LXD behave similarly to traditional VMs but consume fewer resources while providing bare-metal performance.

Coupled with Canonical’s Ubuntu Pro + Support subscription, MicroCloud users can benefit from an enterprise-grade open source cloud solution that is fully supported and with better economics. An Ubuntu Pro subscription offers security maintenance for the broadest collection of open-source software available from a single vendor today. It covers over 30k packages with a consistent security maintenance commitment, and additional features such as kernel livepatch, systems management at scale, certified compliance and hardening profiles enabling easy adoption for enterprises. With per-node pricing and no hidden fees, customers can rest assured that their environment is secure and supported without the expensive price tag typically associated with cloud solutions.

Tags: automation, Canonical, MicroCloud, private cloud

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TECHNOLOGY

AWS and SoftwareOne collaborate on RISE with SAP

Published

1 week ago

November 22, 2023

Max

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SoftwareOne Holding AG, a global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, have partnered to help customers transition to RISE with SAP on an AWS cloud environment.

Called the Ready for RISE on AWS bundle, it combines SoftwareOne’s deep SAP advisory and implementation knowledge with AWS technologies to expedite a client’s SAP transformation journey.

The collaboration comes at a time when there is growing pressure on organisations to decide how to modernise their SAP environments driven in part by the end of mainstream support for SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2027. Despite the imminent deadline, many organisations are still confused as to which path to take, including when to adopt RISE with SAP, SAP’s bundled offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that helps migrate SAP ERP to the cloud.

Ireneusz Hołowacz, Director of Application Development Center at GAVDI Polska, said: “A stable, efficient, and cost-effective environment for consultants and programmers is one of the most important priorities of our daily work. Thanks to the migration of our SAP systems to the AWS cloud with the help of SoftwareOne, GAVDI Polska has achieved all the goals set for this process.

In a survey recently conducted by SoftwareOne with Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG) – the full details of which will be revealed in January 2024 – showed that while 42% of respondents were familiar with RISE with SAP, 40% had heard of it but weren’t familiar with the details and 18% had never heard of it. Over half (52%) said they were still unsure how RISE with SAP would impact their existing relationship with cloud service providers.

“SAP customers have implemented some of the most comprehensive and complex enterprise systems in the industry and moving them to cloud services like AWS requires many important decisions to be made to optimise these investments,” says Joshua Greenbaum, Principal at EAC. “SoftwareOne’s extensive experience in the SAP ecosystem, combined with its unique capabilities around system rationalisation, cost containment, contracts and licenses, and cloud service management, among others, will provide customers deploying on AWS with the ability to make the most of RISE on SAP and other SAP offerings. Ready for RISE on AWS is an important offering for SAP customers at this critical moment in their business transformations.”

The Ready for RISE on AWS bundle will help clients understand their SAP transformation options and offer a comprehensive solution to organisations who consider RISE with SAP. It includes advisory data preparation, conversion services, data and AI, cloud innovation platform, supporting the entire journey to RISE on AWS. Clients will benefit from accelerated Return on Investment (ROI), optimal data management, and cost-saving strategies while laying the foundation for ongoing innovation and long-term business success.

Matt Schwartz, worldwide director, SAP Alliance & Partner Network at AWS, said: “As a valued AWS Premier Consulting Partner, AWS is working closely with SoftwareOne to offer SAP customers comprehensive assistance through each step of their journey to RISE with SAP on AWS. SoftwareOne’s ability to bundle Advisory, Data & AI, Cloud Platform, and Operations considerations can be of high interest to customers who are seeking to understand RISE with SAP as well as the cloud native and operation considerations that surround and support the RISE with SAP construct.”

PF Grillet, SAP Business Lead at SoftwareOne, said: “There are many choices available to SAP clients who know they need to modernise but aren’t sure of the best option, particularly given the business-critical nature of the applications.

“All of our services are centered around our customers and what is right for them. This includes supporting and optimising RISE with SAP in scenarios when it’s the right decision based on their requirements. Our extensive knowledge of and relationship with AWS means we can help them better prepare and achieve a seamless transition to S/4HANA using RISE with SAP on AWS with reduced costs and risks. This collaboration goes beyond preparing businesses for change; it’s making transformation and becoming innovation-ready a reality using AWS technologies.”

The offering includes SNP tooling to reduce a customer’s data footprint and accelerate migration. SoftwareOne will migrate selected data to an AWS data lake, accelerate innovation readiness and ensure SAP data is suitable for broader data analytics and AI use cases. Clients gain access to innovative tools like AWS’ Sagemaker for Machine Learning, continuous data management and optimisation within the AWS environment. The AWS innovation platform also includes Amazon Bedrock that helps organisations accelerate adapting Large Language Models and deploying GenAI use cases that leverage the extended data set.

“While the future innovation opportunities are exciting, clients need to balance these with a pragmatic approach to costs,” explained Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and WECA at SoftwareOne, “We integrate ‘Cost-Out’ recommendations into the core of our services, providing a more cost-effective solution for customers, like reducing the data footprint size and optimising storage and archiving.

“Our expertise in the complexities of SAP licensing further drives cost savings while our FinOps capabilities enable customers to optimise their AWS cloud spend and effectively manage their AWS cloud environment, ensuring full transparency in their budgets. The overall result is a significantly reduced time for RISE migration, which translates into a quicker time to value.”

Tags: AWS, partnership, SAP, SoftwareOne, transition

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