In an era when AI systems scrape vast cultural archives without consent, performing artists are starting to seize control of the tools that shape their work.
One of the clearest examples comes from Pakistan’s Saami family. Their project Infinite Raag has landed among the 20 inaugural grantees of the Mozilla Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation’s Artists Make Technology initiative.
The $11 million program, announced in October at Mozilla Festival in Barcelona, backs performing artists who build their own technologies. The first cohort shares $2.75 million, with individual grants reaching up to $150,000. Selected from 392 applications, the group includes the Center for Cultural Vibrancy as the U.S. nonprofit partner working with the Saamis.
Led by Rauf Saami of the Saami Brothers and guided by his father, Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, Infinite Raag records hours-long khayal performances. It pairs the audio with biometric sensors and a microtonal pitch tracker that moves far beyond Western 12-tone analysis. Artificial intelligence then helps map moments of deep coherence and transcendence in the singing.
Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, born in 1946, stands as a master of the Qawwal Bacha Gharana.
The lineage traces back roughly 800 years to the circle of Sufi poet Amir Khusrau. He remains one of the last living practitioners of a rare 49-note microtonal system known as the surti scale. That system divides the octave into far finer pitches than the standard Western or even the common 22-shruti Hindustani frameworks. His sons, including Rauf Saami, carry the tradition forward through rigorous oral training.
Biometric data captures how this demanding practice shapes the singers’ bodies and minds. Sensors track physiological responses during multi-hour vocalisations. The goal is to document both the sonic precision and the physical effects of perfecting khayal.
Rauf Saami framed the effort clearly. “Infinite Raag seeks to challenge extractive uses of AI and advance technology that supports cultural sovereignty, preservation, and exploration of transcendence,” he said. The system stays artist-owned. Recordings and tools remain under family control rather than feeding open training sets for commercial models that already attempt to generate qawwali-style output.
This approach differs sharply from generic AI music generators. Those systems often flatten microtonal nuance into 12-tone approximations. Infinite Raag builds a tracker designed for the family’s actual 49-note practice. The archive aims to preserve an unbroken oral tradition before external datasets claim it.
.png)
The funding and technical resources flow through the Center for Cultural Vibrancy, a U.S. nonprofit focused on traditional heritage practitioners. That structure places the money with an American partner even as the artistic direction stays with the Pakistani family. Questions remain about long-term Pakistani access to the finished archive. The project description stresses ethical, artist-owned tools and cultural sovereignty as the core principles.
Ustad Naseeruddin Saami has spent decades in the “pursuit of the truth of sur,” as Rauf Saami put it. Recent recognition includes an Aga Khan Music Award. Albums released via Glitterbeat brought his work to wider international audiences. Live performances with his sons continue to draw attention for their meditative depth and pitch control.
Artists Make Technology positions creators at the start of tech design instead of downstream. Similar projects in the cohort tackle haptics for deaf audiences, robotics for disabled dancers, and open specifications for other non-Western scales. For the Saamis, the work turns an endangered living practice into a controlled digital resource. It keeps the knowledge inside the lineage that has carried it for centuries.
Whether the finished system opens pathways for students in Pakistan or remains tightly held will shape its real impact. For now, a hereditary music family has secured resources to teach machines how to hear its tradition correctly, on its own terms.
Check topics and authors from this story to see more stories like this in your personalized feed and receive updates when new work is published.
