AI sentience is just around the corner: SOLARIS 2, a creative-AI score and punk rock band with human in the loop

This paper presents the results of a five-year research project , focusing on the creation of an autonomous punk rock improvising artificial intelligence (AI) that features a digital score. Central to this AI is a live performance ensemble called Solaris 2, comprising AI-generated bass, drum machine , and guitar, as well as human musicians. To develop Solaris 2, we built an unprecedented dataset that captured specific physiological parameters from a series of professional musicians. We developed a hive of neural networks trained on the resultant dataset, which was used to couple the musical core of Solaris 2 with a digital score, enabling human musicians to play along with it. The results obtained from the interaction of human musicians with So-laris 2 are surprising, as they indicate that human musicians perceive Solaris 2 as a competent improviser who acts and responds in real-time to the musical space (mu-sicking). This led us to the third stage of the research, which we present here as the conceptualization of Solaris 2 as being close to a sentient Creative-AI system.