Filmstro Faz Música Para Som E Visão Sem Inteligência Artificial

Filmstro Makes Music For Sound And Vision Without AI

First of all thanks to Monty Munford for this article.

Last month in Italy and for the first time in human history, a robot called YuMi conducted a full-size orchestra.

Developed and designed by the Swiss company ABB, the two-armed robot apparently did a very good job. It conducted three pieces at the opening of the first International Festival of Robotics alongside world-famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

This was yet another milestone in the ongoing disruption of music by AI. But is humanity really passing the baton to machines (not only in conducting musicians) or is this event just tuning into gimmick and hyperbole?

Opinions are divided, but music has always been steamrollered by technology whether it's the instruments that are played or the way it is listened to and distributed. Humans will always be involved, music being the culture that saves us from ourselves, but what future form will this take?

One UK-based startup thinks it may have the answers. Filmstro is a music library for video-makers and flim-makers that sits behind 'intuitive software' and allows creatives to easily customise musical themes. By using a roster of talented and global composers, it allows those users to control the momentum, depth and power of their music to match previously produced footage.

Filmsto says these three verticals or silos are the 'building blocks of music'. It wants to give users easy controls to move between 'loud' and 'sparse' music, single instruments and even an orchestra to produce the content they want.

The mention of a robot controlling an orchestra, however, means little to Chris Young and Sebastian Jaegar, the co-founders of the company, both of whom believe in human supremacy.

The company's CTO and Head of Development  both studied AI at Masters level, but made a very conscious decision not to create an AI engine for Filmstro.  It  decided to use composers because they wanted quality music and are adamant that AI cannot provide this.

"We see AI conducting an orchestra as a key milestone for AI and demonstrates the ability to undertake tasks that are now more nuanced than, say, building a car, which robots have been doing successfully for years.

"As far as creating music, we believe that the superior creative intelligence still lies with human intelligence. So when creating a quality, commercial product, we do not think that transferring this responsibility to an AI will give us the same quality at this moment in time," said Sebastian Jaeger, Co-Founder, Filmstro.

The crux is how humans want to create and enjoy music, whether that's sitting around a campfire warming and playing a bongo or a professional twiddling the knobs in a studio. It's a question, essentially, about art.

Jaeger continues: "Art can not be created by machines because we are sentient beings.  AI cannot replace a composer or the relationship people have with them; who goes to see a concert by Computer X?  Will they organise the concert themselves?"

While the computer currently known as YuMi may, indeed, be able to conduct an orchestra competently, what does this really mean for the future of muisc? It's certainly a milestone, but there will be a number of bum notes before AI creates a new soundscape that will increase our love of music.

Filmstro is building a bridge between composers and film-makers to create the best fusion of sound and vision, there are others attempting to build similar bridges between humans and AI; in fact, very many of them.

Such efforts are noble, but humanity's relationship with its ear and how it processes the dulcet sounds it hears is a very complicated beast. It will be some time before AI can conduct itself with the same precision. Let the band play on.