The development of technology resulted in almost each professional or private activity being performed with the use of electronic systems. Sometimes we are aware of this because we use a desktop computer or a laptop, other times a smartphone that is essentially a portable computer, and other times we use a car, train, or airplane which are also equipped with microprocessors. All these systems are increasingly filled with software that we can categorise as artificial intelligence. This term is used to describe those information systems, the behaviour of which in contact with people resembles that of a thinking and intelligent human being. Such systems are more convenient to use, so new ones are continuously being developed, and the trend is clearly growing. At the same time, however, there are concerns that artificial intelligence will cause unemployment and may even begin to endanger people.
Professor Ryszard Tadeusiewicz
Graduate of the AGH University Faculty of Electrical Engineering (1971), PhD (1975), habilitation (1980), and the title of professor (1986) also at the same faculty. Three-time Rector of the AGH University (1989-2005), member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doctor Honoris Causa of 14 state and foreign universities. Scientifically, he has been predominantly focused on artificial intelligence. He wrote as many as 113 books and more than 2,000 research papers. More information along with the lists of publications and books are available at www.Tadeusiewicz.pl.
Music seems to be a natural extension of acoustic communication, relevant only to our species. To quote Guerrino Mazzola, “it is a powerful communication channel connecting physical, symbolic, and emotional spheres.” Understood as an organised sequence of signals at acoustic frequencies, linked by a set of formal rules, it also appears to be an interesting object for research with the use of artificial or synthetic intelligence systems. Understanding music is a complex psychophysiological process not fully known yet. That is why it is so tempting to use a system based on reservoir computing to detect musical dissonance and consonance. In turn, the research provided an incentive towards performative arts. As a result, a reservoir etude for two guitars, a cello, a piano for four hands, and electronics was created. Whether music is comprehensible for artificial/synthetic intelligence systems and the one created with the use of reservoirs is accessible for listeners can be a topic of a stimulating discussion.
Professor Konrad Szaciłowski
Head of the Department of Semiconductors Photophysics and Electrochemistry in the Academic Centre for Materials and Nanotechnology of the AGH University. Currently, his main research interest encompass the design of inorganic materials intended for building memristors and other neuromorphic elements, imitation of neuronal and synaptic processes in non-living systems, reservoir computing, and relations of musical harmony with other fields of knowledge. In his free time, he contemplates classical music, philately, and Scotch whiskey from Islay and Speyside.