Watch Google I/O Open With A Bizarre Ai-Generated Song About A Duck With Lips
Half an hour before Google's keynote kicked off, musician Dan Deacon performed in front of the waiting audience. He showcased Google's new MusicLM software that uses AI technology to generate music. Deacon also used Bard AI tools and Phenaki (a tool that can create videos) for his set. Instead of a stuffy instrumental or ambient piece to keep the crowd happy, Deacon's (and the AI's) musical composition immediately turned bizarre with a cornucopia of weird AI-generated images on the screen behind him, culminating in a story about a bird with lips.
Deacon sang about a bird with human lips, and the AI-generated images projected behind him did their best to keep up. Not only did the bird have lips, but it was also looking for a roommate for a two-bedroom apartment and was apparently fond of board games. It's worth remembering that Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, is a 1.3 trillion dollar company.
Not just for the birds
Dan Deacon's set was punctuated by, you guessed it, a live mascot of a bird with human lips parading around the stage. Avian-silliness aside, all of the AI tools showcased by Deacon's set show that the technology is powerful enough for live performances and has the potential to be used in the visual themes for a wide array of music styles. The concert begins at the 44-minute mark in the video embedded below.
Bands like Iron Maiden or artists like Taylor Swift are famous enough and have an entire team of visual artists and illustrators who can make a light show or music video for them at the drop of a hat. Still, the tools have the potential to be of great use to musicians and artists who don't have that luxury. AI tools like the ones Deacon presented can take a lot of the expensive and time-consuming leg work out of adding visual flair to a performance on a level that was previously inaccessible to smaller acts or artists with or without birds with lips.