Bulletin No. 1, 2021

18 CHINESE UNIVERSITY BULLETIN NO.1, 2021 AI: ART Internet when one of their AI programs had completed the melodies of the entire missing third and fourth movements of Schubert’s unfinished Symphony No. 8. But commentators soon pointed out that the attempt is a far cry from Schubert’s style, and as vast a project as it might be, it was still just the melodies, which could not have worked without being arranged into a full orchestra score and performed by humans. Beyond sensationalism and a blanket dismissal, how can we make sense of AI’s place in the world of art? ‘It’s more than just an intellectual exercise. We’re really trying to provide the industry with tools they can utilize,’ said Professor Wong of his research, which has also led to a way of automatically converting colour photographs into manga drawings, much to the artists’ convenience. He remembers being approached by a comics publisher trying to remove all the speech bubbles in a work they were digitizing and fill in the gaps. That was 10 years ago, and an automated solution was not available then. The publisher ended up outsourcing the task to Vietnam, spending a whopping 40% of their budget on it alone. Had they come to him 10 years later, the professor joked, the story would have been a lot different, now that his team does have a solution, driven by none other than AI. ‘They may not work a hundred per cent of the time, but with a bit of tweaking by the human user, they do work quite neatly and help cut costs significantly.’ It is the same story with music. With all the virtual composers out there, video producers who are looking for just a reasonably fair piece of music to go with their content can save a good few dollars and time, now that they do not have to hire a human composer. Similarly, game developers can now bring AI composers into their works, providing personalized, non-repeating ambient music for as long as the gameplay might last. Even to the music producers themselves, AI can be immensely helpful, given how much the industry has compartmentalized. Whereas professional arrangers depended on the composers to give them something to work with, they can now hone their skills with melodies produced by machines. ‘AI can empower non-experts by allowing them to quickly achieve things beyond their remits and focus on their specialties,’ said Dr. Chau. We have seen that for a computer to write music, it will first need the ability to understand the rules and norms of music. This opens up possibilities for AI to be used in music education, where it can advise students on what makes a composition or performance right and acceptable. Letz make it happen, Op. 23, a choral symphony written by AIVA, was performed at Luxembourg’s National Day celebrations in 2017 (SIP / Charles Caratini)