Machine learning lets computer create melodies to fit any lyrics

A machine learning system turns poetry into song by composing a pop music score to suit the lyrics it's given. "I was studying singing while I was doing my PhD in computer science," says Margareta Ackerman at San Jose State University in California, who developed the system with David Loker at technology advisory firm Orbitwerks. "Over time, I started to think of computers as creative partners instead of tools, which could maybe help me write songs." The system, called ALYSIA, processes short lines of text and associates each syllable with a musical note. It chooses the pairing based on features including the syllable's position in the word and how it will fit with the previous five notes.