Artificial intelligence systems perform time-consuming tasks quickly and accurately, making it the perfect tool in most situations. But can it make good music?
Creative industries such as art and music are often thought to be inherently human, connected with emotive expressions of individual personalities.
With music- in the words of Billy Joel-being an “explosive expression of humanity,” can robots really compose music that connects with people? Will the music even be good?
Abhilash Hareendranathan, Research Associate, University of Alberta, believes AI is capable of making music that is completely indistinguishable as computerised to a human listener.
He said: ” Would every single tune that’s composed by a computer be indistinguishable? Perhaps not,” but he added, “But it has gotten to a point where it can generate things which is very similar to human imagination.”
Companies like Sony have been working on AI-generated music for many years by integrating a human touch while other innovators like musician and inventor Gil Weinberg proves, robots can write their own music too.
Shimon, the singing and song writing robot, developed by Weinberg and his team at Georgia Tech can compose music, write lyrics, sing and even battle rap in freestyle!
Similar to Shimon, is Android Alter 3 developed byJapanese composer and pianist Keiichiro Shibuya has the ability to instruct a human orchestra.
But is artificial intelligence really necessary in music? And how does it impact musicians and producers?
AI-systems like FlowMachines and AIVA which enable people with no training to compose their own music such as the track below indicates a future of music that could be intimidating to human creativity.
However, as Keiichiro and Weinberg both clarify, the human and robot relationship in music is a collaboration, not a takeover.
The presence of these machines and their uses in music maybe increasing but experts assure that AI will only add to our experiences by providing helping hand.