Staff Reporter
Five artist-engineer teams in the inaugural AI & Africa Music (AIAM) Project presented prototypes at a showcase at the Chris Seabrooke Music Hall at Wits this week, capping six months of collaboration on how artificial intelligence can preserve, reimagine and responsibly co-create with African music practices.
Led by Professor Christo Doherty from the Wits Innovation Centre (WIC) in partnership with the Wits Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute, the initiative brought together academics, students and representatives from the creative, music and technology sectors.
Supported by Wits alumnus, PhD candidate and US-based music executive Charles Goldstuck, the five winning projects highlighted issues including ethics, consent, provenance and creative ownership.
“The language of music is universal, but we all owe a debt of gratitude to the African continent which was the origin of so much of the early influences that humanity experiences in music and culture.
“The AIAM Pilot Project is an opportunity to continue to enhance African human creativity in the era of artificial intelligence, building on influences that have shaped music for centuries,” Goldstuck said.
The AIAM Pilot Project began in November 2025 and was framed around a “culture-first, ethics-driven” approach.
Wits said the programme reflects the university’s leadership in culturally informed, ethical approaches to using AI in music, prioritising collaboration with communities and experts to strengthen creative sovereignty while advancing technical excellence.
“Artificial Intelligence offers tremendous possibilities for African musicians, and not only challenges that need to be controlled through regulation. The Wits AI and African Music project created an opportunity for African musicians to work together with African AI engineers to explore these possibilities through creative collaboration and knowledge sharing,” said Doherty, who holds the Angela and David Fine Chair in Innovation at the Wits Innovation Centre.
AIAM brought together artists and engineers from South Africa, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria in a “Community of Practice”, alongside industry and research professionals such as Tresor, the multi-award-winning Congolese-born singer, songwriter, music producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Their collaborations explored archiving and preservation, creative practice and collaboration, tool development and localisation, and genre innovation, advancing Africa-led approaches to music-AI.
The showcase featured live performances, listening stations and demonstrations, and offered insight into how the prototypes function both musically and technically.
One of the winning teams presented ZAZI, described as a “musical digital twin” enabling real-time voice, rhythm, and storytelling interaction.
It was conceptualised by Umlilo of South Africa, a multidisciplinary artist and creative director at Future Kwaai Records, working with Gideon Gyimah of Ghana, an AI engineer specialising in financial-sector voice-AI and multilingual African speech-technology systems.
Another team presented The Bɛ̀bɛ̀i Engine, a performative AI instrument co-created with the Baka community to preserve endangered polyphonic traditions.
The project was created by Joshua Kroon of Cameroon, a multidisciplinary artist and cultural documentarian, partnered with Emmanuel Apetsi of Ghana, an AI/ML engineer leading open-source AI infrastructure and multilingual LLM development across Africa.
“Artificial intelligence is neither good nor bad; it is a neutral reflection of those who imprint it. That is exactly why projects like the Wits AI and African Music Project matter.
“When African musicians, engineers, and researchers collaborate across cultures, something powerful happens: technology begins to carry the rhythm, stories, and spirit of our people.
“What inspired me most was witnessing how creativity and artificial intelligence amplify each other, not to replace the human element, but to ‘expand it.’ The future of music technology doesn’t have to be imported. It can be homegrown, collaborative, and unmistakably African. Yes, we’re not just experimenting with AI. We’re shaping how the world will experience African creativity for generations to come,” Apetsi said.
The other winning teams included Bina.ai, an AI children’s music and storytelling platform rooted in African genres and early-learning principles, by Ehinome Ogbeide of Nigeria, a music strategist and digital innovator, and Muhigiri Ashuza Albin of the DRC, a creative technologist building culturally grounded AI systems informed by community-based design.
Heritage in Code was presented as a digital archive and AI-fusion engine preserving African instrumental heritage with contributor royalties while enabling contemporary creativity. It was created by Linda Nyabundi of Kenya, a DJ, producer and cultural curator, working alongside Gebregziabihier Nigusie of Ethiopia, an AI researcher advancing machine learning for health, language and cultural-preservation challenges in low-resource contexts.
TIMah AI, meanwhile, was described as a secure archive documenting Kikuyu traditional music with transcript workflows and community-centred consent governance. It was led by Tora Nyamosi of Kenya, an AI-driven music producer and cultural researcher, paired with Lawrence Moruye of Kenya, a machine-intelligence engineer specialising in speech, language and multimodal African-centred applications.
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