Artificial intelligence has developed rapidly in the last few decades. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see artificial intelligences working in our homes, aiding production facilities, and helping with computer programming.
Nowadays, artificial intelligence is even being used to produce and develop music. If this sounds freaky to you – don’t worry. You’re not the only person to think so. The anime series Carole & Tuesday – which tells the story of two musicians competing with AI music production technology – covers the issue nicely.
Whether or not things will pan out to the same degree is up for debate. However, there’s no doubt that AI music production technology is on the rise.
A Brief History of AI Music
The idea of using AI to produce music isn’t anything new. In fact, David Bowie was involved in the development of an AI program that helped him write some of his songs.
The program, released in the 90s, was known as Verbasizer. The program took content from different literary sources, rearranged the words, and turned them into new verbal structures that musicians could use as lyrics.
There was a bit of a lull in AI music production for the next couple of decades until 2016. Then, a program known as Flow Machines helped Sony researchers develop a melody that was reminiscent of The Beatles. This AI-developed music was then sent on to a real musician who helped to develop it into a real song.
How Does AI Music Production Work?
AI music production isn’t that much different than any other type of AI-based software.
AI works with data. The more data you feed it, the more versatile and developed it becomes. This is because it scours your data in search of patterns, and it learns how to relate these patterns to one another.
Over time, this allows AI to develop a rudimentary understanding of whatever data you’re feeding it. It can then create its own work based on its comprehension of the data.
In regards to music, AI searches its source data (different types of music) to identify different patterns. It will learn to understand chords, melodies, notes and their relation to each other. It can then use this information to produce music of its own.
Is AI Music the Way of the Future?
If you’re a musician, you might be concerned about the ramifications of AI-produced music. The threat of AI taking over jobs has been a concern for many years. Now, musicians are starting to worry about whether or not AI might be taking over their creative stations.
Fortunately, you don’t have anything to worry about for the immediate future. While AI has been known to produce some disconcertingly pleasant music (the platform Amper has been known to produce classical-sounding tunes s on its own), there is a certain lack of emotional depth that AI music lacks.
However, that doesn’t mean that things won’t continue to develop. When it comes to AI, technological improvements tend to occur at an exponential rate. For all we know, it could be just a few years before AI starts producing symphonies and orchestras!
