Google’s Magenta AI was used to write a “new” Nirvana song 30 years later

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

We know AI can be used to fake a person’s appearance and even their voice, and while it is typically associated with negative things (rightfully so), AI can also be used to show what a person might look like when they are older, or in today’s case, create new music from an iconic artist who is no longer with us.

Using Google’s Magenta AI, Over The Bridge, a mental health organization, used the technology to create new music from the iconic band, Nirvana. As you are probably aware, lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life almost 30 years ago. In an effort to bring more attention to mental health, the organization combined Google’s tech with Eric Hogan, a Nirvana tribute band frontman, to create a new song that manages to capture the feel of Nirvana’s sound.

You can check out the song below:

https://youtu.be/L9yTuO7d1rk

According to Rolling Stone, this was accomplished by feeding the neural networks and Magenta over two dozen Nirvana songs. They also note that the systems seemed to most struggle with Cobain’s iconic voice and that it took a lot of trial and error to get everything right.

The new song “Drowned in the Sun” is part of a record the organization is creating to highlight mental health struggles, and it features songs from musicians who died at the age of 27. You can learn more about the project on the org’s Facebook page.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• AI wrote this blog post (and it was actually pretty good)
• Hello Neighbor 2’s AI will improve as more people play the game
• Instagram is introducing new anti-cyber-bullying features that use machine learning
• Spotify is the latest company to explore a Clubhouse competitor