The monitor shows the musician what the AI "thinks" of their jam with an emoticonlike representation of a face – not human, says McCormack, as the idea is to picture their playing partner as an intelligent machine. If confident, it nods and smiles; if
really confident, it glows. If it's not feeling the groove, it starts to frown and avoid eye contact. "The goal is to develop a creative partner that can help you become a better performer," he says. "It also never gets tired of performing with you, unlike real musicians."
The first human-AI pop album, I AM AI, by US musician Taryn Southern and various programs, was set for release last week [September 27]. She laughs when asked how often she's heard someone say they thought all today's songs were written by
computers. "Quite a bit! The reality is that a lot of pop these days is pretty formulaic."