No prizes for guessing the bot’s name. You got it: Travis Bott.

Creative digital agency space150 tried out an interesting experiment to find out if AI could be taught to recreate music and a whole new song. They picked rapper Travis Scott – known for his song “Sicko Mode.”

It was the first song in United States history to spend over 30 weeks on the top 10 Billboard charts.

The result of the experiment: a bot-generated song and music video complete with lyrics and melodies. To give the music video an AI-feel and look, the agency engineered a computer distorted deepfake of Scott dubbed Travis Bott. (ADWEEK)

The title of the song: The somewhat nonsensical “Jack Park Canny Dope Man [Official].

Training the bot

According to Ned Lampert, executive creative director at space150, they chose Travis Scott for his distinctive style.

“We were sort of fascinated with like, ‘What if we tried to make a song—like an actual good song—by using AI and basically creative directing AI?’” he said. “And so we chose Travis Scott just because he is just such a unique artist and he has a unique sound.  And everything sort of has an aesthetic to it, both audibly and visually.”

So they fed all of Scott’s lyrics into a text generator model. It took two weeks but the bot could then imitate Scott’s style and write rhyming verses.

Space150 also used some more advanced AI such as additional neural network programs to create melodies. They also used these tools for percussion arrangements to accompany the lyrics.

However, there’s one qualification: Bott’s lyrics are nonsensical and inexplicably have a lot to do with food and eating.

Verdict on the experiment

AI certainly has potential to play a role in music as a creative tool, but it requires a lot of human supervision.

According to Lampert, the bot came up with random and crazy ideas which were a fun pay-off. He likened it to a real life situation when someone at work said something ridiculous and “then we end up doing it.”

“And there were some of those types of behaviors within this process.”

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