shield by Emily Howard is a 14-minute contemporary work for String Quartet. The piece arose through close collaboration with the Piatti Quartet as they experimented with AI-technology PRiSM SampleRNN developed by PRiSM, the Centre for Practice Research in Science Music at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester, as a catalyst for acoustic composition. shield was commissioned by Het Concertgebouw, the Fidelio Trust, the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, the RNCM Centre for Practice Research in Science Music (PRiSM) and the Piatti Quartet who premiered the piece on 16 November 2022 at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.