This is some Kodachrome level color voodoo – color grading and shot matching powered by machine-learning. And it comes from a collaboration with some friends of ours from the artist and live visual side, so it's doubly worth mentioning. What if the current techniques called AI turned out to be really important to creative artists – just not for the reason the general public expected? That's sure what Colourlab Ai looks like. It harnesses the powers of massive data crunching of pixels, the thing "AI" in the current generation was designed to do, and then applies it to making your video look amazing.

The real power of machine learning may have nothing to with automating music making, and everything to do with making sound tools hear the way you do. While not a broadly known topic, the problem of source separation has interested a large community of music signal researchers for a couple of decades now. Wait a second – sure, you may not call it "source separation," but anyone who has tried to make remixes, or adapt a song for karaoke sing-alongs, or even just lost the separate tracks to a project has encountered and thought about this problem. You can hear the difference between the bassline and the singer – so why can't your computer process the sound the way you hear? Splitting stems out of a stereo audio feed also demonstrates that tools like EQ, filters, and multiband compressors are woefully inadequate to the task.

Instead of just accepting all this machine learning hype, why not put it to the test? Magenta Studio lets you experiment with open source machine learning tools, standalone or inside Ableton Live. Magenta provides a pretty graspable way to get started with an field of research that can get a bit murky. By giving you easy access to machine learning models for musical patterns, you can generate and modify rhythms and melodies. The team at Google AI first showed Magenta Studio at Ableton's Loop conference in LA in November, but after some vigorous development, it's a lot more ready for primetime now, both on Mac and Windows. If you're working with Ableton Live, you can use Magenta Studio as a set of devices.

AI is the buzzword on everyone's lips these days. But how might musicians respond to themes of machine intelligence? We're calling this year's theme "The Hacked Mind." Inspired by AI and machine learning, we're inviting artists to respond in the latest edition of our MusicMakers Hacklab hosted with CTM Festival in Berlin. In that collaborative environment, participants will have a chance to answer these questions however they like.

As machines create more-perfect vocal and instrumental performances, a funny thing is happening: humans are catching up. The normal assumption about machine learning or "cyborg" technology is, as technology improves, we'll augment ourselves with more technology. But that misses the fact that humans, both individually and socially, are also smart and adaptable. We start to learn from the tech. I once met Stewart Copeland (The Police, composer), and he talked about this very phenomenon. A lot of the sound of The Police involved Stewart's playing routed through various effects.