The missing half of music history | Gabriella Di Laccio

Historical erasure of women composers has left a massive void in the musical canon, with nearly 90% of recorded music currently attributed to men. This systemic silence is now being codified into artificial intelligence models, which learn from existing, biased datasets and risk permanently excluding half of humanity's creative output. By uncovering and recording the works of thousands of forgotten composers—such as the medieval Contessa de Dia, 18th-century Austrian composer Mariana Martinez, and Holocaust survivor Ilse Weber—it is possible to rectify this imbalance. Ensuring these voices are searchable and accessible in digital catalogs is essential to shaping a future where AI reflects a more complete human history. Investing in the preservation of these lost works is a necessary step to ensure that the music of the future is representative of all creators rather than just a narrow, historically privileged subset.