[MUSIC PLAYING]
WAYNE COYNE: Any time that the Flaming Lips have stumbled
upon a new little instrument, it's changed what we created.
JESSE ENGEL: The goal of the Magenta team
is to really explore the role of machine learning in creativity
and the creative process to enable people to express
themselves in new ways.
Piano Genie is the great work of an intern we had,
Chris Donahue.
He designed an algorithm to be able to take piano playing
and try to reproduce the piano playing only hitting a couple
buttons on a controller and it naturally
comes out sounding a lot more like a professional piano
player.
ADAM ROBERTS: And one of the things that we really focus on
is, how can we let people manipulate these algorithms?
JESSE ENGEL: It's been really exciting collaborating
with the Flaming Lips.
Because they're so creative in their approach to music
that we just sort of show them everything we have.
We're hoping to create a new experience, where
the audience can co-create music with the band in real time
using Piano Genie.
STEVEN DROZD: So we made an intelligent musical instrument
and melody creator out of fruit with Google.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
When I played the fruit, I'm touching it,
and I didn't know exactly what it was going to do every time.
WAYNE COYNE: Each one is announcing what it is.
- Banana.
- [INAUDIBLE]
- Green apple.
STEVEN DROZD: So we worked with Google AI,
and they sent us this software called Piano Genie.
You hit a note, and it automatically plays music.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
WAYNE COYNE: And the more that we
play with it, the more it understands
what it's playing against, and who it's playing with.
[INAUDIBLE]
- Strawberry.
STEVEN DROZD: So you play a different rhythm
or a different note, and this goes on and on.
So it actually wrote a melody that we would not have written.
WAYNE COYNE: You're kind of encouraging the machine
to do something.
It's kind of cool.
If you're a banana, that's pretty good for a banana.
[CHUCKLING]
Of course the Flaming Lips are playing
fruit that has a futuristic algorithm that's going
to help them create a song.
Of course they would.
- Strawberry!
MIKE DERRICK: The balloons in the crowd
and the fruit bowl on stage are basically
two sides of the same coin.
They all feed into the same radio network.
In other words, every time someone from the crowd
interacts with one of our balloons,
it creates music using the Piano Genie network.
WAYNE COYNE: And then at some point,
the more that they play with it, the more the algorithm is
going to start to be encouraged or go into another dimension.
I think that's a great musical moment.
We've written a song especially for tonight's occasion.
[CHEERING]
At the end of the day, that's what these algorithms and all
these things are doing.
They're just sitting there, helping you.
And I want that.
That's a new beginning.
[CHEERING]