While Daft Punk may have sadly split, machine-created music may be about to skyrocket in popularity. Not only are artificial intelligence neural networks now capable of creating original melodies, but scientists are also developing robots capable of playing – and improvising – live music.
So, will AI and androids soon top the charts? And could they even replace human musicians entirely?
On this week’s episode of the Science Focus Podcast, Prof Nick Bryan-Kinns, director of the Media and Arts Technology Centre at Queen Mary University of London, joins staff writer Thomas Ling to explain groundbreaking new music technology.
Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:
- Could these gloves be the future of music? – Imogen Heap
- Why do humans make music?
- The psychology of the sea shanty: Why work songs are such earworms
- Meet the computer scientist teaching an AI to play Dungeons and Dragons
- The creator of Bellingcat on using the internet to investigate global affairs
- The future of human flight, with real-life Iron Man Richard Browning
Authors
Thomas is a Staff Writer at BBC Science Focus and looks after all things Q&A. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards.
