Bagpipes, AI, and cultural hegemony

What happens when traditional musical instruments meet AI platforms? Violins, flutes, guitars, and other types of Western instruments are well documented and mostly well represented in image and knowledge libraries, producing accurate (albeit quite generic) representations of the instruments in textual and visual formats. But what if we ask different AI generative programmes to interact with instruments that aren’t as widely represented as those from the Western classical orchestra? And what happens when these lesser-known instruments have one prominent variety that supersedes the others? In this short essay, an ethnomusicologist and a computer scientist worked together to unpack the forces at play behind representations of musical instruments, with a specific focus on bagpipes.