On human-AI collaboration in artistic performance

Abstract

Live artistic performance, like music, dance or acting, provides an excellent domain to observe and analyze the mechanisms of human-human collaboration. In this note, we use this domain to study human-AI collaboration. We propose a model for collaborative artistic performance, in which an AI system mediates the interaction between a human and an artificial performer. We then instantiate this model in three case studies involving different combinations of human musicians, human dancers, robot dancers, and a virtual drummer. All case studies have been demonstrated in public live performances involving improvised artistic creation, with audiences of up to 250 people. We speculate that our model can be used to enable human-AI collaboration beyond the domain of artistic performance.