In recent years, as you know, artificial intelligence has experienced a real boom in popularity, thanks to its convergence with Big Data and machine learning. What stage is it at? Well, I'd say it's gone very, very far.
It is capable, for example, of SEEM sentient (to one of the engineers who programmed it). He is able to create complex drawings and spectacular photocompositions simply from an instruction received. And it can, of course, to compose a piece of music complete with text and synthesized voice.
All things, you will tell me, that we have already seen done. Sure, but the changes we are witnessing are simply epochal. The transition from the GPT-1 and GPT-2 linguistic model to the GPT-3 model, for example. GPT-1 (born 2018) was trained on 117 million parameters. GPT-2, born in 2019, was trained on 1,5 billion parameters. GPT-3, June 2021, is trained on 175 billion parameters. Do you sense the progression?
Yes, but let us hear this song!
As mentioned, even in the recent past there have been examples of songs conceived or modified by an artificial intelligence. There were many experiments, and it was like witnessing the first uncertain steps of a child.
The impression is that some time is still needed, but even in this case it is enough to look into the recent past and the difference between a song from previous years and one of these years is notable.
Take Mr. Shadow, the song I'm going to show you shortly. It was created by Flow Machines, a technology that learns different musical styles, "kneads" them and composes its own song based on what it has put under its teeth.
A little Tony Bennett, a little we will all die
I state: Flow Machines is a software that anyone can use. If you are interested (it is not a review, I do not take money from these gentlemen or any bonuses) you can download it, only if you have an Apple device, to this address.
Let's get to the song: shall I tell you what I think? Okay. Already knowing that he was born from an artificial intelligence I find something strange, especially in his voice. Something that terrifies me, to be precise. A bit like those children's lullabies that we find in horror films, the kind that suddenly have a discordance, a strangeness that disturbs us.
I'm missing proof, though. If I hadn't known the song was by an AI, would I have noticed? Maybe yes, come on. But I have a feeling that won't be the case for a while. Very little. Here's Mr.Shadow: let us know what you think on Futuroprossimo's social channels, and if you're crazy enough, put it in your playlist.
