PeopleofSuperintelligence

Builder

Eric Singer

Eric Singer is a roboticist and artist whose LiDAR controller helps nonverbal performers control nuances of AI-generated speech in opera. He studies at Berklee with Richard Boulanger, earns an electromechanical engineering bachelor's degree at Carnegie Mellon, and pursues computer science at NYU. He founded LEMUR in 2000; its team built GuitarBot with him and produced about 40 instruments for Pat Metheny's 2010 Orchestrion tour. Since 2025, he is an Integrated Design & Media researcher-in-residence at NYU Tandon and builds the Ther’minator for Sensorium Ex.

Links
LinkedIn

Timeline

  1. 1991

    Engineering and music studies

    In 1991, he graduates from Berklee after studying with Richard Boulanger; after graduation, he works as Boulanger's assistant. He also earns a bachelor's degree in electromechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon and pursues graduate study in computer science at NYU.

  2. 2000

    Founding LEMUR

    In 2000, he starts the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots (LEMUR), a collective of artists and technologists that creates robotic musical instruments. Within its first year, he secures a Rockefeller Foundation grant for machines and materials.

  3. 2003

    The GuitarBot

    In 2003, he builds GuitarBot with Kevin Larke and David Bianciardi; the robotic guitar takes two years to build and helps LEMUR develop technology it can reuse.

  4. 2010

    Metheny's Orchestrion tour

    In 2010, Singer and LEMUR create about 40 robotic instruments for Pat Metheny's Orchestrion tour. Each instrument routes standard MIDI notes through a processor, so musicians can control the robots with familiar music software.

  5. 2018

    AI and GuitarBot on Science Friday

    In 2018, he joins computer scientist Roger Dannenberg for a live discussion of computerized composition and a song created by AI. GuitarBot plays the Science Friday theme.

  6. Since 2025

    NYU researcher-in-residence

    Since 2025, he is an Integrated Design & Media researcher-in-residence at NYU Tandon. In 2025, he builds the LiDAR-based Ther’minator for Sensorium Ex; the controller lets nonverbal actors control nuances of their AI-generated operatic speech in real time.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Eric Singer yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. In the Spotlight: Singer’s Robots berklee.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. A Guitar So Good It Plays Itself spectrum.ieee.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Robot Band Backs Pat Metheny on Orchestrion Tour wired.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Artificial Intelligence Gets A Musical Makeover sciencefriday.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Luke DuBois and the NYU Ability Project help give performers in the opera Sensorium Ex a cutting-edge way to communicate engineering.nyu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.