Jukedeck uses machine learning to make sweet harmonies

For K-pop stars used to Pop Idol-style fame factories, Tuesday's concert at Blue Square Concert Hall in Seoul was still an artificial first. The 3,000 screaming fans were real, as were chart-topping, body-popping girl groups Spica and Produce 101 -- but all of the songs were written by a London-based song-bot. Each of the tunes in the set had been composed by Moorgate-based Jukedeck. The artificial intelligence (AI) start-up was founded by 30-year-old former King's College Cambridge choristers Ed Newton-Rex and Patrick Stobbs (Stobbs is also a Google alumnus). Simply, the technology reads music and learns what notes, chords and combinations work in order to generate good music.