Robots are Now Writing Their Own Songs

Well if you are a musician and having a bit of writer’s block, you can now turn to artificial intelligence.

Meet Shimon the songwriting robot. He can write his own lyrics and even perform them if you desire. The robot was developed by researchers from the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. Shimon learned from a dataset of 50,000 lyrics covering all genres of music. The robot can also sing and dance while performing his songs. His accompanying band is made up of students and researchers.

“I suggest a theme, he writes lyrics and gives me a melody that I compose into a song – we then perform it together with other humans while he sings,” said Professor Gil Weinberg, creator of Shimon.

Songwriting Robot Takes a Theme and Writes a Song

When Weinberg gave Shimon the theme of space for a new song, the robot was able to come up with lyrics such as ‘there may be music on a star into your mind. In these lyrics are in the song Into Your Mind, the first release from the robot’s upcoming album. 

Shimon can also identify one word and link it to other matching and connecting words.  For instance, the robot songwriter will know the word ‘storm’ is linked to things like rain and sunshine. It will then generate lyrics accordingly.

Shimon Can Sing and Dance

Along with his lyrical skills, Shimon is a pretty decent singer. His unique voice was created by collaborators at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona who helped train the AI on hundreds of different songs. Shimon’s eyes, mouth, and head movements also convey emotion while the robot performs. The robot can even count in at the beginning of songs to cue the band.

Shimon’s upcoming album is set to drop in April. He will also be going on tour with his human band to bring their unique blend of AI-infused music to more people.

“I want the whole experience, it is just like a human, it is interesting but I think we want the audience to just sit back and say ‘I like the music, “ said Weinberg.

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