Friday, December 1, 2017

AI MUSIC IS HERE

Yay Technology!!!  Elton JoHN  is at work nowadays creating a  post biological self.  Accodiing to NEWEEK,  with the help of top A.I. techologicy guys, Elton is creating a robot Elton John that could go on tour after the he's is gone, performing his songs, --also  new ones  the Elton bot can write based on todyas news.

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The fact is, many musicians, reeling from the shift to streaming music which pays artissts a fraction of what they used to make on CD sales -- are learning everything they can about about  bots thatd help them earn big money again.

Spotify, Google and some  startups, like Juke Deck, are working on AI songs. Hey,, in a decade the Grammy might go to a piece of software. Spotify recently hired Francoise Pachet, Ai Scientist, who led a company science lab for Sony, to run its new " Creator Technolgoy Research Lab." Sp;otify is looking into the possiblity that virutal artists playing on Spotify, can earn the company a ton  of money  without paying royalties.

Pachet is careful not to sound greedy  He a recent interview he speaks of AI reveerentlyh, as songwriting partner tha tay " lennong needed a a McCartney.  Pachet, and a a group of other AI  scientific specialists, instrtucted Ai software to write a gong and instrumentation that mimics the Beatles. Using, Humans  to create lyrics, they they refined the AI  arrangement. The result' a song posted online "daddy's Car" sounds as if the Beattles cranked out a chipper jingle.

Meanwhilie, IBM iis worikintg on AI with Watson which uses using other techonolgies as a hlpers, and produced--with AI and  a real artist, Alex da Kid to create a hit sont"
Not Easy." .  The various soft ware e machines sucked up lyrics of more than 26,000 bill board Hot 100 songs; analyzed the music to find patterns  the keys, chord progressions and comeup withwhat IBM now calls " emotional fingerprints"  -- rFiguring out what makes a hit, inlcuded Analyzing New--well-- Newsweek  York Times, front pages, blogs, tweets,  plots of big hit r movies. Thee resulting son "not Easy' (Newsweek says: "Itshows that AI can't yet guarantee a hit."

Hey, AI hasn't written a hit yet doens't mean it won't. the sheer number of songs it can write guarantees that it can. Beattles recorded 237 original song;.,s Jackson 137,  Ai can too, iin the time is takes Mccartney to press a pinao key.-- AI canme tens of milioins of songs, and one of them might thrill us, knowck us out.

JHey elton john may help.   ou'd be able to watch a fresh" live" Elton John Concert through virtual realty glassedz.

Hey, I like music, I'm not sure I like where this is heading, but I'm sharing with you what I;ve learned, so you can be in tune with the times.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

ARE YOU A PHUBBEREE?

 We love our phones.


The managing editor of The WEEK, Theunis Bates, said Americans feel their relationships are being phubbed by a seductive third party -- not another person, but a smartphone. I looked up phubb; it's phone & snub spliced together.

Researchers at Baylor University surveyed 140 people and found that  almost half had been “phubbed” by their partner, that is, snubbed by the partner checking social media, news, or texts on a phone, According to 70 people, phone overuse is causing conflict with their loved one. 

"Phubbering" was also mentioned a few weeks ago in The Washington Post in an article by Stanford University psychologist, Emma Seppala who described how many couples are struggling to balance their  love for each other with their love for their iPhones and Androids.

Managing editor Theunis Bates said: "I’ve been both a phubber and phubbee‚ so I get why this habit is so infuriating and yet so difficult to stop doing. We’re social beings who crave connection, but facetoface communication can feel passé when there’s a whole world to observe and interact with on our gadgets. Tap a screen and you’re rewarded with an always updating stream of photos from family and friends, tweets from the president, breaking news, and videos of skateboarding cats. Dipping into that stream lights up the pleasure centers in our brains—the same ones activated by recreational drugs—so we keep going back for more."

Wow! What a warning! When I'm shopping, I see it happening -- everyone's talking on the phone while I'm trying not to bump into anyone, or checking pot holes in the sidewalk and the street.

Hey, heed Theunis Bates and Em! Command yourself -- sing that ugly awful word P H U B B E R E E inside your brain, and plunk down your device.