To mark the 200th anniversary of Stadtcasino Basel, the University of Basel’s Responsible Digital Society research network and the Interfinity Festival Basel invited the public to a new edition of the innovative game show AI vs. Human on Saturday, June 13, 2026. What began as an entertaining experiment evolved into an impressive demonstration of the rapid progress of artificial intelligence (AI) – and a thought-provoking reflection on the future of music.

At the heart of the event was a special comparison: An ensemble performed three pairs of musical works, each in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, and Béla Bartók. The twist? In each pair, one piece was composed by a human, the other by an AI. The audience was challenged to guess which was which. The results were surprising: With Bach, the audience was divided, and the majority’s guess was just off the mark. For Chopin, most of the audience incorrectly identified the AI piece. Only with Bartók was the AI composition clearly recognized. This stood in contrast to the first edition of the game show in 2024, when the audience had no trouble identifying all the AI-generated pieces. The conclusion: AI models have improved significantly in just two years that their compositions are now barely distinguishable from human works for a broad audience.

Following the musical experiment, an interesting panel discussion took place, moderated by Catherine Thommen (SRF). The guests, Prof. Stephan Schmidt (Director Basel Academy of Music FHNW) and Prof. Matthias Schmidt (Professor of Musicology at the University of Basel), explored the question of what value AI compositions hold for classical music. The discussion revealed that while there are critical voices questioning the artistic merit of AI-generated music, promising applications were also identified, such as in education or as a source of inspiration for composers. At the same time, the experts warned of the risks of uncritical AI use in the creative process, including the potential loss of originality.

The AI vs. Human event was more than just an entertaining game show – it was a mirror of rapid technological progress and an invitation to rethink the boundaries between human creativity and artificial intelligence. And who knows? In two years, even experts might struggle to tell the difference between AI and human compositions.

Text edited by Mistral Le Chat