Oliver (Ollie) Bown is a British researcher and musician based in Australia, where he is professor at the School of Art & Design at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, He is co-director of UNSW’s Creative Technologies Research Lab (CTRL), an interdisciplinary academic group comprising creative artists and musicians, designers, media theorists and cultural studies researchers who together research technology in its relation to creative work. Ollie’s research explores the nature of creativity in the arts, how technology is a site of artistic creative exploration, and how AI technologies are transforming creative fields in their ability to automate aspects of the creative process.  

He has written over 100 academic articles in technology, arts and social science fields. His first book, Beyond the Creative Species: Making Machines that Make Art and Music, was published by MIT Press in 2021 immediately before the current boom in generative AI. Since 2022 has has been a researcher on the project Music & AI: Critical Interdisciplinary Studies funded by the European Research Council and bringing together international leaders in the social study of music and AI. He is currently also co-investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: one on sound in public space; and the other on artists, AI and fairness. He is a regular commentator about the impacts of AI on the creative arts, and has contributed to debates at the World Intellectual Property Organisation, OECD, the Australian National AI Centre, Creative Australia and SXSW. 

He is also an electronic musician best known for his work in the UK duo Icarus, since 1997, and Australian ensemble Tangents, since 2010. 

Hs is working on a new book about the cultures of commercial creative AI, their rise and impact.