OK Computer, Write Me a Song

Last summer the Internet was overrun by psychedelic images of swirling skies sprouting dog faces and Van Gogh masterpieces embellished with dozens of staring eyes. By running their image-recognition algorithms in reverse, Google researchers had found they could generate images that some call art. At an auction in February, a print made using their "DeepDream" software fetched 8,000. But although fun, DeepDream images are limited, says Douglas Eck, a researcher in Google's main artificial intelligence research group, Google Brain. Last week he announced a new Google project called Magenta aimed at making new kinds of creative software that can generate more sophisticated artworks using music, video, and text. Magenta will draw on Google's latest research into artificial neural networks, which underpin what CEO Sundar Pichai calls his company's "AI first" strategy.