Royal Opera House Launches 4-Day AI Arts Festival as Creatives Debate Ownership and Collaboration
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jun 2
Royal Opera House Launches 4-Day AI Arts Festival as Creatives Debate Ownership and Collaboration
2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 2
June 4-7, the Royal Opera House’s RBO/SHIFT festival in London will examine AI’s role in the arts, aiming to move debate beyond apocalyptic claims that the technology will “decimate” creative work.
The program frames AI as a complex shift rather than a simple replacement threat, arguing opera offers a useful test case because it blends multiple art forms while historically absorbing new technologies.
Ownership, consent and performers’ likenesses remain central concerns, with the festival stressing that direct profit from appropriation should trigger legislation, controls and protections.
Practical uses already look more immediate than AI-generated art, including workforce planning, scheduling, safety analysis and pre-visualisation tools that could cut waste in set-building and costume design.
RBO/SHIFT ultimately asks what AI can do for creatives—and what creatives can do in the age of AI—casting artists as active shapers of a technological transition already spreading across society.