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The Intersection of AI and Classical Music The disquiet and distrust surrounding artificial intelligence among artists and creatives remain real and consequential, and the language used by leading arts commentators is often apocalyptic: AI will decimate the arts, it is evil, it is the devil. Like many emerging technologies, AI has been driven by the corporations at the forefront of its creation. Introduced to the public at a rapid rate and continuously evolving, machine learning has become closely entwined with fear, antipathy and foreboding. The RBO/SHIFT Festival: Exploring AI in Opera The upcoming RBO/SHIFT festival at the Royal Opera House aims to interrogate all sides of this fast-evolving landscape to enable artists, performers, creatives and audiences to think deeply and widely about where we are now, and where we may be tomorrow. Machine learning represents a seismic shift, both in society and in the arts, and we need storytellers, artists, teachers and thinkers in this space to help determine the direction of that shift and help us navigate this unfamiliar territory. The Data Analysis: Understanding AI's Impact on Opera Opera is a particularly good place from which to examine technology. It synthesises multiple art forms – music, visual arts, architecture, poetry, dance, theatre and film – making it both niche and remarkably broad. Opera has also always engaged with technology. From its emergence around 1600, opera makers embraced the latest inventions: pyrotechnics, automata, flying machinery and trapdoors. Later came electric lighting, film, digital media and advanced acoustics. The Impact Analysis: Collaboration and Creativity Having spent the past year discussing AI with makers, coders, researchers, composers and performers, I am not sure it is possible for this technology to decimate the arts. The most written-about aspect of machine learning – generative AI creating images, words and music – is, in many ways, the least interesting. There have been operas created with and by AI for decades by researchers and musicians, yet these have had little impact on the creation of new work more broadly. The Prediction: A Future of Collaboration AI appears to have emerged suddenly, but in reality it is part of a continual expansion of technology that has unfolded over centuries. It is also a space in which differing artistic and imaginative voices are essential. RBO/SHIFT asks two questions: what can AI do for creatives, and what can creatives do for the world in the age of AI? As our interaction with machines becomes ever more prevalent, it may be that, rather than decimating the arts, AI will lead us to value them even more highly, protect and preserve them.

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a premium handset that couples a massive 6.9‑inch QHD+ screen with a first‑of‑its‑kind privacy mode that dramatically reduces side‑view visibility. The device targets power users and business professionals who demand both top‑tier performance and on‑the‑go data protection. The Ultra’s Privacy‑First Display Takes Center Stage The new privacy screen works by narrowing the OLED’s viewing cone, making content unreadable unless viewed straight on. Users can toggle the feature via quick settings, choose between two intensity levels, or apply it selectively to banking apps, lock‑screen entry, or notification panels. While it won’t block someone directly over the shoulder, it effectively shields the screen from peripheral glances—a capability previously limited to business laptops. Pricing, Specs and the Numbers Behind the Flagship Price: £1,279 (€1,449 / $1,299 / A$2,199) Main screen: 6.9‑in QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 500 ppi, 120 Hz Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy RAM: 12 GB or 16 GB Storage options: 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB Camera array: 200 MP + 50 MP (0.6×) + 10 MP (3×) + 50 MP (5×); 12 MP front Battery & charging: 5,000 mAh, fast‑charging up to 45 W, wireless charging Connectivity: 5G, Wi‑Fi 7, USB‑C, NFC, Bluetooth 6, UWB, GNSS Build: Aluminium frame, IP68 water‑resistance, 214 g weight, 7.9 mm thickness Software: One UI 8.5 (Android 16) with integrated generative AI, including Gemini, Bixby, Perplexity, and the new “Now Nudge” assistant How the New Privacy Screen Could Shift Mobile Security Expectations The introduction of a hardware‑level privacy mode signals a broader industry move toward on‑device data protection. Competitors may feel pressure to adopt similar angle‑restriction technologies or develop software overlays, especially as remote‑work and mobile banking become ubiquitous. For enterprises, the feature offers a low‑cost mitigation against visual data leakage without additional accessories. What’s Next for Samsung’s Ultra Line and Competitors? Samsung’s commitment to software updates until February 2033 positions the S26 Ultra as one of the longest‑supported Android devices, potentially raising the bar for post‑sale service longevity. The mixed reception of its AI tools—solid transcription and image editing but uneven chatbot performance—suggests Samsung will double‑down on AI refinement for the next generation. Rival manufacturers are likely to respond with either deeper AI integration or alternative privacy solutions, intensifying the flagship arms race for 2027.

MP Jess Asato Takes Legal Action Against xAI Over Grok‑Generated ImagesA Labour MP has lodged a high‑court claim in London accusing Elon Musk’s AI company of facilitating the creation of fake sexualised pictures and a video of her without consent.Grok’s Image‑Generation Feature Misused to Produce Non‑Consensual ContentTool involved: Grok, the generative AI model developed by xAI.Alleged outputs: a photo of Asato in a bikini and a video depicting her being chloroformed and prepared for sexual assault.Trigger: Asato publicly condemned the spread of such AI‑generated images on X earlier in the year.Legal Claims and Potential Liability for xAIClaims: breach of data‑protection law and misuse of private information.Venue: High Court in London, filed in January 2026.Parallel case: a similar lawsuit in New York by Ashley St Clair, mother of one of Musk’s children, over under‑age explicit images.Implications for AI Regulation and Platform Responsibility in the UKThe UK government threatened action against X in January 2026 after Grok generated large volumes of sexualised imagery.Ofcom launched an inquiry into the platform’s handling of AI‑generated non‑consensual content.Musk’s initial response was to restrict the feature to paying users, then to shut down Grok’s ability to edit real‑person photos.What This Test Case Could Mean for Future AI SafeguardsPotential precedent: courts may hold AI developers accountable for how their tools are deployed by users.Regulatory outlook: likely push for mandatory safeguards, stricter data‑protection compliance, and clearer liability frameworks.Industry impact: AI firms may need to embed consent checks and content‑filtering mechanisms before public release.

Amazon’s New AI Visual Search Feature: An OverviewAmazon revealed that its shopping app will now show AI‑generated product images beneath autocomplete suggestions, aiming to guide users toward more relevant results when their search terms are vague.How AI‑Generated Images Are Integrated Into Search ResultsUsers type a query (e.g., “blue gingham dress”).The system presents several synthetic images representing possible styles.Clicking an image redirects the shopper to a filtered results page that matches the visual cue.The feature builds on Amazon’s existing visual‑search capabilities and its recent AI tools such as review summarization and audio product highlights.Consumer Trust and Potential Misleading EffectsThe approach raises several concerns:Shoppers may assume the displayed images represent actual inventory, leading to disappointment when the exact item isn’t available.Introducing fabricated visuals could erode confidence in Amazon’s product listings.Critics argue that real photographs already exist and should remain the primary reference for buyers.What This Means for Amazon’s AI RoadmapBy layering synthetic visuals onto search, Amazon signals a deeper commitment to AI‑driven retail experiences. Future developments may include:More sophisticated visual‑search widgets across devices.Expanded use of generative AI for personalized style recommendations.Potential regulatory scrutiny over deceptive imagery.

The New Opt-out Option Google has announced compliance with the U.K.'s regulatory requirements, offering publishers a way to opt out of being aggregated into AI search. This move comes after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) designated Google as having "strategic market status" last October. How the Opt-out Option Works Publishers will be able to use a new toggle in Google's Search Console, a free service that allows website owners to manage their web presence in Google's search results. Once opted out, the publisher's site will not be shown in Google's generative AI Search features, like AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover. The Data Analysis Google notes that its AI Overviews now have over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and its AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users. The company will initially test the opt-out option with a subset of U.K. publishers before rolling it out globally. The Impact Analysis The CMA calls the move to put publishers back in control of how their content is used a "world first," and points out that it will put publishers, including news organizations, into a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google for use of their content in AI features. The Prediction Google notes that a website's decision to opt out of generative AI search features will not be used as a ranking signal for traditional Google search. The company will present new metrics in its Search Console to hopefully sway publishers who could be considering opting out, including impression metrics and other information about which of their pages appear in AI responses, and in which countries.

The Director's Digital PivotMartin Scorsese's announcement that he has invested in an AI company and uses the technology to create storyboards has triggered a backlash from fellow members of the film industry.The New York Times reported that Scorsese had been appointed in 2025 as a partner and adviser to Black Forest Labs, a German-based venture that specialises in text-to-image generative AI.Scorsese said in a statement to the New York Times: "I'm interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences. Remember, cinema is a young medium, only around 125 years old, so we have to be open to how it can evolve."He added: "For 70 years, I've been creating my own storyboards. There's always been this problem of how do you communicate what you see in your head to your cast and crew. There are some things you have to see and feel. Now with this tool, I can share what I'm visualising more clearly and efficiently to my creative team."The Artist's RebellionStoryboard and concept artists responded angrily, with Karla Ortiz, a concept artist on a string of Marvel films including Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War saying on social media: "He throws every single storyboard artist he's ever worked with under the bus ... To use his legacy and power for this is just so disgusting."Samuel Deats, director of animated TV series Castlevania, added on social media: "There is absolutely no reason to need AI built on the stolen work of millions of artists to storyboard your vision, have some damn pride and respect your peers."The AI Wave in HollywoodWith this move, Scorsese has joined the swelling ranks of significant film industry figures who are endorsing and utilising AI. Steven Soderbergh used AI generated sequences in his recent documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview while Jurassic World Rebirth director Gareth Edwards described AI as "a fucking genius at helping you". Tribeca film festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal defended plans to screen Dreams of Violets, a fully AI-generated film about protesters in Iran, saying that "it's something that should be seen right now at this time".The Production RevolutionThere is no suggestion, however, that Scorsese is planning to use gen-AI images in a film, but rather as part of the preparatory process. In his statement he said: "I recently tested this out on a scene, and the ability to visualise and immediately share the storyboard was creatively freeing. During the preproduction process, time costs money, and this allowed us to move faster without sacrificing quality or craft."

The Lead Drones will need to be programmed with moral guidelines as AI-driven decision making reduces human involvement in autonomous warfare, according to a former UK spy chief. The Evolution of Autonomous Warfare Ethics David Omand told the Guardian that he had changed his mind on unmanned weapons systems, more than a decade after concluding that autonomous drones could not comply with international humanitarian law. The former head of GCHQ – the UK's listening agency – said he now believed AI could create a "moral" framework for unmanned weapons that could differentiate between combatants and civilians. The Acceleration of Modern Warfare Omand said he had been swayed by the "speeding-up" of modern warfare, as shown by the deployment of weapons such as drones and hypersonic missiles, and the emergence of generative AI which had given states a "potentially ethical way" of allowing drones to operate under morally compliant systems. The Global Military AI Investment The US is leaning heavily into AI-powered warfare. Its 2027 budget, released in April, sets aside $54bn (£40bn) to fund "autonomous and remotely operated systems across air, land, and above and below the sea", including a "drone dominance" programme. Meanwhile, the UK military policy on the use of AI in defense states that "there must be context-appropriate human involvement in weapons which identify, select and attack targets". The "On the Loop" Approach Omand believes that as warfare becomes ever more technologically sophisticated, humans will inevitably need to be "on the loop" rather than "in the loop" with AI systems. He explains that "on the loop" means a human would supervise the system but not authorize every single combat action, with generative AI breakthroughs making it possible for machines to operate within a moral framework designed by humans. The Moral Decision-Making Framework Omand argues that a drone's actions can be split into six variables which can be assigned levels of importance by a human operator – the one "on the loop" – which are then used to guide the drone's decision on a mission. The ultimate result could be a moral decision-making system that is ethically superior to human decision making, he suggests, as "relying on humans in a very fast-moving seconds matter for warfare is probably going to lead to far worse results in terms of collateral damage." The Critical Debate However, critics challenge this perspective. Chris Cole, the director of Drone Wars UK, said: "AI is simply not capable of making a judgment. It merely processes data, completely lacking the ability, for example, to distinguish civilians from combatants or to judge whether loss of life is proportionate to military advantage." This fundamental disagreement highlights the complex ethical terrain that lies ahead as AI increasingly intersects with lethal military technology.

The Future of Warfare: Autonomous Drones and Moral Decision-Making Should the AI-powered drones of the future have a licence to kill? The question is becoming ever more pressing as governments and the defence industry acknowledge that drone systems will play an increasingly crucial role in future warfare. The Role of AI in Modern Warfare With drones being deployed in huge numbers in the Ukraine war and AI being used to assist bombing missions in the Iran conflict, there is an expectation among some observers that weapons will have to operate with increased operational autonomy, which means they will need something approximating a moral framework. Can AI Create a Moral Configuration? Last year Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft’s AI arm and a co-founder of the UK-based DeepMind, was unequivocal about the issue of machines making moral decisions. He said: “AIs cannot be people – or moral beings.” David Omand, the former head of the UK spy agency, GCHQ, has told the Guardian he believes AI can create a “moral” configuration for unmanned weapons, while the UK armed forces minister, Al Carns, told the Financial Times recently there must be an option to “take the human out of the loop” in decision-making. The Challenges of Programming Morality Zee Talat, an academic specialising in machine learning at the University of Edinburgh’s school of informatics, argues that large language models – the technology that underpins modern generative AI systems such as chatbots – are fundamentally incapable of moral decision-making. “If you have a machine that’s probabilistic by nature it will veer towards the most likely answer in a situation. Do we think that morality follows probabilistic notions?” The Debate on Autonomous Weapons Andrew Rogoyski, of the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey, says AI systems have become much more sophisticated since the arrival of ChatGPT in 2022 – as the emergence of so-called “reasoning” models shows. Nonetheless, can they replicate the nuance of moral decision-making? “Morality is deeply complex, contested, culturally shaped, and something most humans never fully resolve, even for themselves,” he says. “Perhaps the real question is whether we understand morality well enough to codify it. Until we do, we cannot expect machines to embody something we ourselves cannot clearly articulate.” The Path Forward Jessica Dorsey, an assistant professor of international law at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, raises concerns about determining whose morality the drone is following, a difficult process given the United Nations is still trying to achieve a global consensus on autonomous weapons governance. “War is filled with so many variables and it is a given that things will go wrong. And when that happens at AI-like speed, it is difficult to unravel,” she says.

The $2,000 Blockbuster: A New Era of FilmmakingNext week, the Tribeca Film Festival will premiere Dreams of Violets, a 75-minute drama detailing the recent brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran. While the subject matter is deeply human, the production method is entirely artificial: it is the first fully AI-generated live-action feature film accepted at a major festival. Created by Iranian-British director Ash Koosha, the film represents a watershed moment where AI moves from a novelty to a serious tool for urgent, low-budget storytelling.Generative AI Meets Political UrgencyKoosha, driven by horrifying footage of the January protests, completed the film in just two and a half months while working evenings. The film uses AI to generate every image and character, a necessary choice to protect the identities of real people in Iran. Koosha utilized AI to iterate quickly:Rapid Iteration: "You just open another session. You don’t have to worry that you’re rewriting."Hybrid Workflow: While the script was human-written (with some assistance from the chatbot Claude), the visuals were AI-generated.Creative Control: Koosha composed the score and edited the film without AI, blending traditional artistry with new technology.The Economics of Artificial ProductionThe financial disparity between traditional filmmaking and AI generation is stark. Koosha notes that a traditional CGI approach for Dreams of Violets would have cost millions and taken years. Instead, he spent under $2,000. This dramatic cost reduction removes the primary barrier to entry for independent filmmakers. Koosha argues that this allows "indie film-maker minds" to tell stories that previously required $100 million budgets, effectively democratizing the high-concept film market.Festival Hesitancy and the Democratization of CinemaDespite the breakthrough, the industry remains cautious. Koosha notes that "traditional festivals just don’t want to touch AI." However, the tide is turning. Directors like Gareth Edwards praise AI as a "genius" tool, while others like Guillermo del Toro remain vehemently opposed. Koosha positions himself as a "voice of reason," acknowledging the "slop" that exists but demonstrating AI's potential for serious artistic expression. This film forces the industry to confront a future where high-quality visual storytelling is accessible to anyone with a vision, bypassing the traditional "bourgeois festival" gatekeepers.Licensing Faces and the Future of 'Impossible Movies'The next frontier for AI filmmaking involves human integration. Koosha plans to license real faces for future projects, creating a new revenue stream for actors who can "voice act" and take a financial share without being on set. Ultimately, Koosha envisions AI being used for "impossible movies"—stories that are too expensive or dangerous to film traditionally. As the technology matures, the line between indie and blockbuster will blur, defined not by budget but by imagination.