François Pachet, director of the Spotify Creator Technology Research Lab (CTRL)
François Pachet got his Ph.D. and Habilitation from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), after an engineer’s degree from Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées. He has been assistant professor in artificial intelligence at UPMC until 1997 when he joined SONY Computer Science Laboratory Paris to conduct research on interactive music listening, composition and performance.
He developed several award winning technologies such as constraint-based spatialisation, intelligent music scheduling using metadata and systems: MusicSpace, Continuator for interactive music improvisation, and Flow Composer which paved the way for AI-based score composition.
François Pachet has published intensively in artificial intelligence and computer music. He was elected EurAI Fellow in 2014 and doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Pernambuco (Brazil) in 2017.
He was Principal Investigator of the Flow Machines ERC-funded project, which produced (with the musician SKYGGE) Daddy’s Car, a song in the style of the Beatles, and Hello World, the first mainstream music album composed with AI.
He is also a musician and has published two music albums (jazz and pop) as composer and performer, as well as an augmented book about the ontogenesis of a musical ear, Histoire d’une Oreille.
His current goal is to build a new generation of tools to assist music creation.