TRAILBLAZER

From the music industry to machine learning . Secondmind CEO Gary Brotman speaks to Technology Magazine about parallels between the music industry and AI , and being inspired by machine learning .

You used to work in the music industry – what was that like and what did you learn ? “ Music and technology have been constants in my life and I ’ ve been fortunate to weave them together throughout my career ,” he says . “ At the centre of it all has been an almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a desire to create and evangelise new stuff that improves peoples ’ lives .

Career in digital music :

“ There are many parallels between the music industry and the AI and machine learning domain ,” he adds . “ The dawn of MP3s , expanded reach of the Internet , and access to a ‘ celestial jukebox ’ let consumers gorge on more music than they could listen to over multiple lifetimes . This transformed the business of music and resulted in new ways for music fans to engage with artists and their music . Similarly , the proliferation of AI and machine learning ( ML ) technology has catalysed business and cultural transformation globally .”

How did using ML inspire you ? Brotman was first inspired by ML at Musicmatch , when developing a popular desktop software app called Musicmatch Jukebox .

“ At the core of all Musicmatch products was a unique music recommendation engine powered by early ML algorithms focused on collaborative filtering ,” says Brotman . “ While other recommendation engines relied on explicit input from users , the Musicmatch engine observed what people actually listened to and how they interacted with the music . Musicmatch generated the most eclectic and often unexpectedly appealing listening experiences of any music services that have existed to date .

“ This experience motivated me to focus my career on digital music over the next 15 years , which included the first half of my nearly decade-long tenure at Qualcomm . It was there

18 November 2022