Creativity, Ads & AI News #7

Never a dull moment in the world of artificial intelligence, here’s what’s caught our eye in recent headlines.

Aussies take the crown in Eurovision inspired AI song contest 

AI and music is a winning combo, so why not line up some of the world’s finest AI music creators against each other? This is what Dutch broadcaster VPRO did, with its  Eurovision-inspired AI Song Contest. The winners were Australia, with Uncanny Valley’s Beautiful The World, inspired by nature's recovery from the bushfires earlier this year. The judging panel commented: "The teams not only pushed the boundaries of their personal creativity, but also gave the audience a look into the exciting future of human-AI musical collaboration." A livestream of the contest can be found here. 

Cheltenham Science Festival uses AI festival curator

Like, well, all festivals this year that haven’t been cancelled, the Cheltenham Science Festival will be taking place as a virtual festival. What’s particularly interesting is that it’ll be curated by AIDA - aka the world’s first artificial intelligence festival curator. Audiences can interact with ‘her’ and influence the festival’s development. Check it out from Tuesday 2 to Sunday 7 June.

AI does data so you don’t have to 

AI is taking over the world but it won’t take your jobs (probably). Instead, it can help - particularly when it comes to the arduous area of data. Here’s a nice run down of the different ways AI can pitch in, allowing digital marketers to focus on the fun stuff.   

I’ve got 99 problems and deepfakes are one 

Deepfake debates have come to the fore recently, as rapper Jay Z demanded parodies of his voice be removed from YouTube. A fascinating article from Andy Baio delves into the world of musical deepfakes, and shares a Q&A with the anonymous creator of the YouTube channel in question, Vocal Synthesis, to “learn more about how he makes these videos, his reaction to the takedown order, and his concern over the future of speech synthesis.” Check it out here.