playform ai
AI: Making New Music, And Finishing What Beethoven Started
Professor Ahmed Elgammal recently published an article over at The Conversation about his work as part of the artificial intelligence startup Playform AI. He and his team have used AI to complete Beethoven's Tenth Symphony, and plan to premiere the work in Bonn, Germany on October 9, 2021. It's an intriguing read -- the AI team worked in collaboration with composers and musicologists, using short notes, sketches, and completed works left by Beethoven to unravel his intent and construct an AI that could emulate his work. Ultimately, they ended up with an AI that was able to fool an audience of journalists and music experts alike. "We challenged the audience to determine where Beethoven's phrases ended and where the AI extrapolation began. A few days later, one of these AI-generated scores was played by a string quartet in a news conference. Only those who intimately knew Beethoven's sketches for the 10th Symphony could determine when the AI-generated parts came in."