Innovating Sema: Community-building of Live Coding Language Design and Performance with Machine Learning

创新Sema项目将确保我们创新的机器学习实时编码平台的长期存在和使用。经过MIMIC授权（AH/R002657/1）期间的激烈开发过程，我们开发了一个潜在的范式转换系统，该系统使编程语言的艺术表达用户能够设计自己的语言以与机器学习接口。这是以前没有做过的，通过我们的用户研究和研讨会，我们相信我们的系统是有效的。我们的项目有可能通过实际操作来揭开机器学习的神秘面纱，从而产生对现代人工智能的理解和信任。它使非专业用户能够参与创造性的人工智能。现在是时候确保Sema系统的长期使用和广泛使用，通过语言设计和机器学习这两大支柱来促进对计算的理解。MIMIC项目是对计算机和艺术领域发生的重大变化的直接回应。人工智能和机器学习的最新发展导致了音乐和艺术创作方式的革命。然而，将这项新技术集成到针对创意人员的软件中还处于早期阶段。由于机器学习的复杂性，以及可用工具的缺乏，这些方法只能由专家使用。为了研究如何将这些富有成果的新艺术创作技术带给人们，我们创造了新的、用户友好的技术。它们使外行人，包括作曲家和业余音乐家，能够在他们自己的创造性工作中理解和应用这些新的计算技术。在Sema开发过程中，我们发现了意想不到的潜在影响：1)我们将为机器学习创建一种高级的实时编码语言。然而，根据调查反馈，我们决定通过创建一个系统来推广和扩展我们的方法，让其他人使用我们的语言语法编译技术来设计他们自己的实时编码语言。这使得艺术家既是自己工具的创造者，也是用这些工具创作艺术作品的创造者。通过在线设计和安装我们的系统，并建立一个有助于其开发的社区，我们正在有效地与用户合作，用工具和乐器填充音乐工具箱。2)在Sema的开发过程中，我们意识到机器学习离大众还有多远。人们不容易理解新的人工智能，这项技术通常被视为社会中的一股负面力量（从自动化焦虑、过滤泡沫、偏见到将人们推向政治极端的算法）。我们的项目使人们能够探索机器学习，从而通过实践经验了解机器学习和人工神经网络是如何设计和训练的。音乐是让人们了解机器学习的理想平台，因为它是一个协作、有趣和无风险的实验环境（不像自动驾驶汽车或股市算法）。通过使用我们的软件创建在线资源（包括语言生成器、实时编码环境、机器学习架构和模型，以及用户贡献的迷你语言）以及可靠的文档和教程，我们将确保Sema项目的寿命和影响。通过广泛的用户参与计划，我们将为国际用户社区创造条件，使其独立于我们自己的实践和研究而成长。这个社区最初将由我们自己的研讨会、邮件列表、媒体露面、社会媒体沟通以及通过我们自己的国际计算机音乐教授同事网络传播而形成。

The Innovating Sema project will secure the long-term existence and use of our innovative live coding platform for machine learning. After an intense development process during the MIMIC grant (AH/R002657/1) we have developed a potential paradigm-shifting system that empowers users of programming languages for artistic expression to design their own languages for interfacing with machine learning. This has not been done before and through our user studies and workshops we are confident that our system works. Our project has the potential to demystify machine learning through hands-on use, thus generating understanding and trust in modern AI. It enables non-expert users to engage with creative AI. Now is the time to secure the longevity and wide use of the Sema system promoting understanding of computing through the two pillars of language design and machine learning.The MIMIC project is a direct response to significant changes taking place in the domain of computing and the arts. Recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning lead to a revolution in how music and art is being created. However, these are early days concerning the integration of this new technology into software aimed at creatives. Due to the complexities of machine learning, and the lack of usable tools, such approaches have only been usable by experts. In order to study how we might bring these new fruitful technologies of new art making to the people, we created new, user-friendly technologies. They enable laypeople, both composers as well as amateur musicians, to understand and apply these new computational techniques in their own creative work.The unexpected potential for impact we discovered during the development of Sema is twofold: 1) We were going to create a high level live coding language for machine learning. However, responding to survey feedback, we decided to generalise and scale our approach by creating a system for *other people to design their own* live coding languages, using our language grammar compilation technology. This makes artists equally the creators of their own tools as well as the creators of artistic work with those tools. By designing and installing our system online and building a community that contributes to its development, we are effectively collaborating with users in filling a musical toolbox with tools and instruments. 2) During the development of Sema, we become attuned to how distant machine learning is to the general public. People do not easily understand new AI and this technology is often seen as a negative force in society (from automation anxiety, filter bubbles, bias, and algorithms pushing people to the political extremes). Our project enables people to explore machine learning, and thereby gain an understanding of how machine learning and artificial neural networks are designed and trained, through hands-on experience. Music is an ideal platform to give people an understanding of machine learning as it is a collaborative, fun and risk-free environment for experimentation (unlike self driving cars or stock market algorithms).By creating an online resource with our software (including language generator, live coding environment, machine learning architectures and models, and user contributed mini-languages) together with solid documentation and tutorials, we will secure the longevity and impact of our Sema project. Through an extensive user-engagement plan, we will create the conditions for an international community of users to grow independently of our own practice and research. This community will be initially formed by our own workshops, mailing lists, media appearances, social media communication, and dissemination through our own networks of colleagues who teach computer music internationally.