Watson, the Jeopardy-Playing IBM Supercomputer, is Now Writing Songs. Listen.
The idea of computers writing songs has been in the news this year as scientists seek to stretch the frontiers of artificial intelligence. Now Watson, IBM’s smartass supercomputer, has co-written a song (sort of–you’ll see) with Elle King, X Ambassadors and Wiz Khalifa. This is the beginning of a project that will see Watson issue its first EP. No joke.
How can a box of wires write a song? Watson looked at fives years’ worth of “field texts,” which involves everything from front pages of the New York Times to Supreme Court rulings to movie reviews in order to gauge the zeitgeist. Then it looked at social media feeds as a way of understanding tone and attitude. Finally, it analyzed thousands upon thousands of songs, looking for patterns and commonalities in terms of chord changes, melodies, key, time signatures and song structure.
Watson then spit everything out into the hands of producer Alex Da Kid who used the material as inspiration for writing the final product. So while Watson didn’t actually compose a finished piece, under the rules of songwriting, it does deserve a co-writing credit.
Here’s the result.
Read the full story at Chartattack.
