AI Meets Music
Bits, Bytes & Beats
BXA Intercollege Degree Programs
written by
Cally Jamis Vennare
Sara Adkins’ (BCSA 2018) love of music may have been nurtured at an early age by artistic parents, but her creative expression was not limited to musical pursuits. At 8, she was playing the guitar. In high school, the viola was her instrument of choice.
But she also loved computers.
Carnegie Mellon University opened her eyes to both passions … and, ultimately, to a career positioned at the intersection of music and artificial intelligence (AI) in the 21st century.
“When I was applying for college, I was looking at schools that had dual degrees in music and computer science. CMU quickly rose to the top. And then I found the BXA programs,” said Adkins. BXA’s Bachelor of Computer Science and Arts intercollege degree, which combines the strengths of Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts and the School of Computer Science, allowed Adkins to explore both music technology and computer science.
“Initially, I wasn't sure how I wanted to combine those two areas. I just knew that I liked both. At the end of my sophomore year, I took a class in computer music in the School of Computer Science with Roger Dannenberg. The class included topics about algorithmic composition, teaching machines to write music, and writing computer programs that could compose music. That’s where everything clicked into place for me,” explained Adkins. Dannenberg’s class piqued his students' interest in questions like: Can a machine be creative? Can it interact with a human?
Fast forward eight years after her CMU BXA graduation, followed by a Master of Science in Sound and Music Computing from Queen Mary University of London, and you’ll find this music technologist, machine learning engineer and musician pioneering new ways of using AI to create and perform music at Suno, a powerful AI-driven platform.
At Suno, Adkins splits her time between machine learning and artist-in-residence responsibilities, a seemingly ideal match for her dual passions. She not only evaluates Suno’s AI models and helps to develop new features, but also uses and showcases Suno’s products in her performances.
“I also lecture on how to go from text to music generation to something more,” said Adkins. “I want to work on ways that computer science and algorithms can be used to help people be more creative. We are really at the intersection of music and AI right now. You don’t need expensive audio software to make your own song. You can do it with your voice, by singing your ideas and describing verbally what you're trying to express.”
Are professional musicians like Adkins the primary users of tools like Suno? Adkins believes it’s a mix. Early adopters were “non-musicians who didn't know how to play an instrument, but Suno inspired them to be more creative, learn an instrument and take their music-making to the next level.” As the company and the technology advanced, it began to target its diverse toolkit to professional and amateur musicians in order to give them more control over the music they generated.
Adkins believes that professional musicians will be the ones to take AI to the next level. Rather than imitating music that already exists, they will unlock novel ways of making music with AI technology through new genres or techniques.
“I don't think very many professionals are using AI like ‘oh, I’ll type in a sentence and get a song and release that.’ I think they're singing into it. Then they get a drumbeat that they like. Then they pull that into their music software or the studio and sing on top of it. Suno is giving them something more granular … like one part of a song. Or a spark that inspires them that they can build upon. Or the chance to re-envision their melody in a new genre. I like to use Suno this way to create mashups of classical and electronic music.”
Adkins is not only excited about the future of AI in music, but also in generative visual art and video. She finds it “inspiring to be at the forefront of innovation” as AI evolves into a collaborative tool that unleashes creativity among artists, drives greater efficiency in their workflows and offers personalized experiences to listeners.
“CMU was an extremely influential place for me because it was where I first became interested in the intersection of music and computer science. In the School of Music, I was able to create algorithmic compositions and perform them with Exploded Ensemble (whom she continues to work with as a guitarist, violist and composer). I learned so much about composition and how to make experimental music a little bit more accessible. I saw art students taking computer science courses … and engineering students who were also artists and musicians. It’s definitely an interdisciplinary place! Everything I learned at CMU truly shaped the future of my career.”