They taught an Artificial Intelligence to beatbox and ... cross creed!
If you like to keep up with what's going on in the technology world, then you should know that they are teaching “machines” to do all sorts of things, such as creating artwork, editing photos, making medical diagnoses, predicting crime, and so on. Now someone has decided to teach Artificial Intelligence how to beatbox - and the result is, at the very least, disconcerting (not to say horrifying!).
If you don't remember the term, beatbox is the ability that (so far) some artists develop to play sounds of musical and electronic instruments with their mouths - and you can see one of these guys in action via this link. However, according to Lars Gotrich of NPR, they are now trying to teach algorithms to do the same, and for the moment we can guarantee that humans have their post as beatboxers guaranteed.
Baby machine
But before we share with you the AI output, let us tell you a little bit about the initiative. The "music" was created from voice samples by Holly Herndon, an American composer and artist who develops compositions primarily through the computer - using software and visual programming languages to produce custom vocal processes and instruments.
In the case of artificial beatboxing, what Holly did was feed a neural network with files containing samples of her voice and let the "machine" process the information and create its own version of the sound. The artist also used beats produced by a song (also American) known as Jlin, and let the algorithm merge everything.
The result was christened Godmother, but Holly also refers to the production as her "baby AI." Anyway, get your ears ready and check out the following sound (and don't be mad at us if the music makes goose bumps or fuel nightmares!):
Let's be honest! Godmother is not what we can call angelic sound. However, according to Holly, the idea was not to produce a piece that was easy to hear or that sounded like music to human ears. The purpose, according to the artist, was to make it clear at what stage of advancement this kind of technology is - for Holly, AI is still a baby - and to show the public that we need to be cautious and that we are not creating no monsters. It will be? Tell me what you think!
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