#Google’s AI Blob Opera lets you create exquisite festive compositions

Christmas songs are ubiquitous during the festive season, but most of them lose their luster after you’ve heard them a trillion times.

If you wish this really would be the Last Christmas you’re forced to endure Wham, Google‘s new Blob Opera offers a chance to create something a little different.

The machine learning experiment by artist David Lee lets you create an operatic festive song for a quartet of colorful blobs to sing.

The creatures were taught the art by professional songbirds Cristian Joel (tenor), Frederick Tong (bass), Joanna Gamble (mezzo‑soprano), and Olivia Doutney (soprano), who recorded 16 hours of singing to train the AI model how to warble. But the composition of the crooning is up to you.

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Just click on one of the blobs and drag it up and down in pitch, and side-to-side to produce different vowel sounds. Another machine learning model will make them harmoniously respond to your directions in real-time.

The results can be exquisite, if I do say so myself. You can also share them with your family, so the next time a relative dares to put on Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime, send them a link to your creation before you smash the stereo into pieces. And then smash it up anyway, just in case they try again.

 

Published December 17, 2020 — 12:17 UTC