Theoretical Reflections on AI-Mediated Jazz Improvisation

Abstract

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technology within music has changed the improvisational performing style and aesthetic underpinning of jazz. Based on the philosophy of technology and the aesthetics of music, this article identifies three levels on which AI intervention has restructured the basic configuration of jazz improvisation: the improvisation subject has expanded from the performer to a human-machine consortium, the creative activity has shifted from the individual's internal expression to distributed generation in the interaction, and the focus of aesthetic attention has shifted from the finished product to the generation process itself. In a sense, then, the question AI poses for jazz improvisation is not whether machines can improvise like humans, but how much definitive meaning the term "improvisation" has in the era of technology. From this perspective, AI is not only a tool or an opponent, but has become an active participant in improvisation. This shift of perspective is important because it encourages the concept of improvisation to expand from the creative behaviour of a single subject to the generation of events during interaction between human and machine, providing a new direction for understanding the relationship between humans and technology in the creation of music.