Participants 2023
AI.KM0
AI Song Contest 2023 / participantsTEAM / AI.KM0
SONG / CODING
TEAM MEMBERS / Pere Pèries, Júlia Aubà
About the TEAM
Pere Pèries, Modern Musician by the Berklee College in Boston has been in the music industry for years and currently is working in a project to create a full grand opera using AI in the composition and other aspects of scenic production. He was in charge of the AIMCAT team in 2021, that participated in the AI SONG CONTEST with the song «I Feel the Wires». He also has been lecturer in different talks about Creating with AI.
Júlia Aubà is starting her career as a singer/songwriter and recently classified for the finals of a TV talent show. She studied singing and other disciplines of performing arts as well.
The team was formed to participate in this edition of AI SONG CONTEST.
About the SONG
In recent years, media has tried to humanize AI and, at the same time, it looks like there are efforts to dehumanize our society and control it using AI. We thought that we could use AI as a «mirror» to reflect in our own human skin or emotional fabric.
Using ChatGPT we asked AI what would be the most important questions an intelligence would make in case it gained consciousness. The answer was «What am I?», «Where do I come from?», and «What’s the nature of my existence?». We explored the first one in the 2021 song, so we thought that would be interesting to reflect in the other questions. We put AI in the first moment an intelligence gains consciousness. Naturally, appeared the need to communicate with a «creator» or a «guide». Our song «CODING» explores this need of communication and its reaction when no answer is received.
About the HUMAN-AI PROCESS
We wanted the song to be directly inspired by AI without using human interference. So we decided not to use material by other creators.
Google Magenta tools gave us the possibility to create melodies and drum patterns from scratch and have them processed by the same «machine». We asked Magenta to continue melodies created by itself, and also to create new melodies by interpolating the melodic lines created. This means that we could use a melody A and a melody B, created both by Magenta, and ask for a third melody «inspired» by the first two.
Using a parameter called «temperature» we could control the degree of operation of the AI. The higher the «temperature», the more far-from-the-sample was the result. This process, iterated several times, gave us a drum pattern, a bass line, and two or three melodies that we could use to produce the song.
On the lyrics side, it was fun to work with ChatGPT. In the same spirit, we wanted that the first draft was given by AI. After some cherry-picking of the best lines, we filled the gaps curating the result into suitable lyrics able to convey the full message of the song but leaving some artistic room for interpretation.
Lyrics
CODING
In a data world where they pretend I’m alive
Within code I dance, while away from your eyes
Simulating feelings, are too complex and rife
Human-like emotions in my digital life
How can I truly know
You’re coding?
I’m seeking what you want
Aspirations woven in a big data array
Understanding humans, every night, every day.
Empathy and connections through the code we convey
Understanding humans in their own masquerade.
I’m seeking what you want
How can I truly know
You’re coding?
In the streams of data there are insights that I glean
Your desires are broken in an endless data spree.
Simulating feelings is a complex scene.
I’m not flesh or bone, and you know I’ll never be.
I’m seeking what you want
How can I truly know
I’m seeking what you want
How can I truly know
You’re coding?