BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

WAiFF 2026

Source:

Heh, I see Gong Li is president of the jury there...
https://worldaifilmfestival.com/

THE AMBASSADORS OF THE WAIFF 2026
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE
COMPOSER, ARTIST, AND PIONEER OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC
A French composer, performer, and producer, widely regarded as a pioneer of electronic music. Born in Lyon in 1948, he began experimenting with electronic sounds in the late 1960s, combining synthesizers, tape loops, and innovative production techniques. He achieved international recognition with Oxygène (1976), followed by landmark albums such as Équinoxe and Magnetic Fields, which helped bring electronic music to a global mainstream audience. Jarre is also known for his large-scale outdoor concerts, integrating music, architecture, laser technology, and visual projections, often performed in iconic locations before millions of spectators.

Source: https://worldaifilmfestival.com/the-ambassadors/

WORLD NEW WAVES OF CREATIONS A.I FILM FESTIVAL PALAIS DES FESTIVALS CANNES
21-22 APRIL 2026
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
PRODUCER SONGWRITER JEAN-MICHEL JARRE
21/04/2026
10:30 AM – 11:00 AM: Keynote: Jean-Michel Jarre
"AI: Augmented Imagination"

Source: https://worldaifilmfestival.com/wp-cont ... ROGRAM.pdf

World A.I. Film Festival
21/04/2026
10:30 – 11:00: KEYNOTE – JEAN-MICHEL JARRE
AI : Augmented Imagination
22/04/2026
CLOSING : ROBOT DANCE PERFORMANCE SET TO MUSIC BY JEAN-MICHEL JARRE

Source: https://worldaifilmfestival.com/the-program/

A pioneer of electronic music, he is this year the ambassador at Cannes for the World A.I. Film Festival, the first international festival dedicated to films and scripts created with artificial intelligence. He champions the idea that AI is an opportunity for culture and that we must not fear innovation.
@jeanmicheljarre is the guest of @FogielMarcO this Tuesday, April 21, starting at 8:15 a.m. on #RTL

Source: https://x.com/RTLFrance/status/2046266726497575113

Kanta wrote: Tue Apr 21, 2026 8:48 am

Youtube "accidentially" turned on English translation, which are AI voices. At first I thought: "since when is RTL english?" but already quite early you can hear the oddities in the spoken language. It tries to emulate the voices of the original people, but at one point.. I don't know what it was trying to do, but suddenly I think I could hear Italian?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/ ... embrace-ai

Jean-Michel Jarre urges music and film industries to embrace AI

French musician’s comments are in stark contrast to fears expressed by artists such as Elton John and Dua Lipa

Jean-Michel Jarre has attacked the conservatism of the music and film industries over AI and urged them to embrace the technology instead of being fearful and “very anti-AI”.

Jarre, one of the pioneers of electronic music in the 1970s, said while the existing creative industries were “freaking out” over the technology, artists would use AI “to create the cinema of tomorrow, the hip-hop of tomorrow, the techno of tomorrow, the rock’n’roll of tomorrow”.

AI’s power to generate images and sounds would not kill talent, but should be embraced as the pioneers of the film industry embraced the moving image and then sound in the early 20th century, he said.

The French musician’s comments were in stark contrast to deep anxieties about AI that have been expressed by other leading musicians including Elton John and Dua Lipa – in particular about models being trained on copyrighted material without clearance or compensation.

Artists and musicians around the world are fighting through courts and legislatures to protect their copyrighted works from being scraped and regurgitated by AI models. Jarre, 77, has sold 85m records and is a former president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, which advocates for creators rights. He was speaking at the launch of the second AI film festival in Cannes for which he is an ambassador.

“AI today is the wild west so we need to establish rules,” he said. But copying has long existed in art and original ideas often resulted because “your subconscious is harvesting your memories, your recollections, your culture, your environment. And then stealing from different random elements,” he added.

“It’s absolutely unfair to reduce the huge possibilities of AI by just thinking of doing a fake pop song, a fake heavy metal song,” he said.

Jarre has been using AI in his work since 2018.

“Every technological revolution seems to be always considered as a threat by the previous established media or mode of expressions,” he said. “And AI is exactly the same. We should never be afraid of technology.”

“It’s strange how conservative the movie industry and the music industry are [on AI],” he said, urging creatives to think of AI as “augmented imagination”. “They are probably more conservative than lots of other sectors in our society. And everybody’s in their own lane and they’re all considering everything which could disrupt [their business].”

“When I started, I remember I introduced electronic music in the French opera house [in 1971], and some musicians of the orchestra were unplugging the PA system, thinking that electronic music is going to be the end of orchestras and their jobs.”

He said creatives should not fear that AI would take their roles but to use the technology as a catalyst for a new mode of expression, comparing it to the emergence of the 1970s Fairlight sampling system, which was embraced by musicians like Peter Gabriel and Herbie Hancock.

“It can augment possibilities to discover something interesting,” Jarre said. “I don’t see that it’s going necessarily to affect the next Bad Bunny or Billie Eilish or the next Lorde.”

“It’s because we have invented the violin that Vivaldi existed,” he said. “It’s because we invented electricity that we had Tarantino or Jimi Hendrix. And, and it’s because also today we are inventing a new learning model, a new AI algorithm, that the new genre of cinema, the new genre of music, will be created in the future.”

Jean-Michel Jarre urges music and film industries to embrace AI
French musician’s comments are in stark contrast to fears expressed by artists such as Elton John and Dua Lipa
Jean-Michel Jarre has attacked the conservatism of the music and film industries over AI and urged them to embrace the technology instead of being fearful and “very anti-AI”.
Jarre, one of the pioneers of electronic music in the 1970s, said while the existing creative industries were “freaking out” over the technology, artists would use AI “to create the cinema of tomorrow, the hip-hop of tomorrow, the techno of tomorrow, the rock’n’roll of tomorrow”.
AI’s power to generate images and sounds would not kill talent, but should be embraced as the pioneers of the film industry embraced the moving image and then sound in the early 20th century, he said.
The French musician’s comments were in stark contrast to deep anxieties about AI that have been expressed by other leading musicians including Elton John and Dua Lipa – in particular about models being trained on copyrighted material without clearance or compensation.
Artists and musicians around the world are fighting through courts and legislatures to protect their copyrighted works from being scraped and regurgitated by AI models. Jarre, 77, has sold 85m records and is a former president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, which advocates for creators rights. He was speaking at the launch of the second AI film festival in Cannes for which he is an ambassador.
“AI today is the wild west so we need to establish rules,” he said. But copying has long existed in art and original ideas often resulted because “your subconscious is harvesting your memories, your recollections, your culture, your environment. And then stealing from different random elements,” he added.
“It’s absolutely unfair to reduce the huge possibilities of AI by just thinking of doing a fake pop song, a fake heavy metal song,” he said.
Jarre has been using AI in his work since 2018.
“Every technological revolution seems to be always considered as a threat by the previous established media or mode of expressions,” he said. “And AI is exactly the same. We should never be afraid of technology.”
“It’s strange how conservative the movie industry and the music industry are [on AI],” he said, urging creatives to think of AI as “augmented imagination”. “They are probably more conservative than lots of other sectors in our society. And everybody’s in their own lane and they’re all considering everything which could disrupt [their business].”
“When I started, I remember I introduced electronic music in the French opera house [in 1971], and some musicians of the orchestra were unplugging the PA system, thinking that electronic music is going to be the end of orchestras and their jobs.”
He said creatives should not fear that AI would take their roles but to use the technology as a catalyst for a new mode of expression, comparing it to the emergence of the 1970s Fairlight sampling system, which was embraced by musicians like Peter Gabriel and Herbie Hancock.
“It can augment possibilities to discover something interesting,” Jarre said. “I don’t see that it’s going necessarily to affect the next Bad Bunny or Billie Eilish or the next Lorde.”
“It’s because we have invented the violin that Vivaldi existed,” he said. “It’s because we invented electricity that we had Tarantino or Jimi Hendrix. And, and it’s because also today we are inventing a new learning model, a new AI algorithm, that the new genre of cinema, the new genre of music, will be created in the future.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/ ... embrace-ai