Lifeboat Foundation

Note by note, machines are learning to express themselves. But if you think the fusion of artificial intelligence and music is bound to produce soulless, robotic-sounding tunes, Taryn Southern urges you to give our weird future another listen. The singer and internet personality is prepping what she calls the world’s first AI-composed album, I AM AI. Of course, others have dabbled in AI-generated music, and the finished product is not entirely computer-composed (the lyrics and vocal melodies were written by Southern), but the human intervention is minimal. The output isn’t exactly Grammy material, but it’s not far off from something you might hear on a pop playlist on Spotify.

Using AI music creation software by Amper, Southern plugged in various parameters like mood, style, and tempo to auto-compose the underlying chords and instrumentation. The album will even be distributed online through Stem, a platform that allows royalties to be divvied up between various creators. So not only will machines write music in the future, they might even get paid.

Continue reading “This new AI-composed pop song sounds like something from a Spotify playlist” »

Listen to the first pop song composed entirely by an AI!

Self Driving Cars and Ethics. It’s a topic that has been debated in blogs, op-eds, academic research papers, and youtube videos. Everyone wants to know, if a self-driving car has to choose between sacrificing its occupant, or terminating a car full of nobel prize winners, who will it pick? Will it be programmed to sacrifice for the greater good, or protect itself — and its occupants — at all costs? But in the swirl of hypothetical discussion around jaywalking Grandmas, buses full of school-children, Kantian Ethics and cost-maps, one crucial question is being forgotten:

What about the Squirrels?

Continue reading “Life or Death: Will Robo-Cars Swerve for Squirrels?” »

“Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s conceptual virtual reality installation CARNE y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible) explores the human condition of immigrants and refugees.”

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When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What’s going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians’ brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.

Did you know that every time musicians pick up their instruments, there are fireworks going off all over their brain? On the outside, they may look calm and focused, reading the music and making the precise and practiced movements required. But inside their brains, there’s a party going on. How do we know this?

Continue reading “What is Going on Inside the Brain When We Listen to Music?” »

Why are we often so wrong about how the future and future technology will reshape society and our personal lives? In this new video from the Galactic Public Archives, Futurist Gray Scott tells us why he thinks it is important to look at all aspects of the future.

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Intelligent Machines

Machine-learning algorithm watches dance dance revolution, then creates dances of its own.

A machine learns to choreograph by studying a famous 1990s music video game.

Continue reading “The first machine to study the Dance Dance Revolution video game now choreographs its own dances” »

Credit: Hashem Al-Ghaili
Research papers are here:
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v14/n2/full/nn.2726.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4211412/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2776393/

Continue reading “Here is what music does to your body” »

Awe is so powerful it alters your sense of self, connects you with humanity and boosts your mind and body. And there’s a surprising way to get more of it.

By Jo Marchant

HAVE you ever been stopped in your tracks by a stunning view, or gobsmacked by the vastness of the night sky? Have you been transported by soaring music, a grand scientific theory or a charismatic person? If so, you will understand US novelist John Steinbeck’s response to California’s giant redwood trees, which can soar more than a hundred metres towards the sky. “[They] leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always,” he wrote. “From them comes silence and awe.”

Continue reading “Awesome awe: The emotion that gives us superpowers” »