Within 48 hours of its release, Alex Da Kid's "Not Easy" reached number four in the iTunes Hot Tracks chart. Alex’s secret? IBM's Watson (a cognitive computing platform) which was used to analyse the composition of five years' worth of Billboard songs, cultural artefacts, film scripts, and social media commentary, so he could understand the "emotional temperature" of the time.
Alex then used Watson BEAT to come up with different musical generation algorithms for inspiration on which musical elements should be used to sound the piece.
But AI’s reach has gone beyond music.
Did you watch the latest Avengers edition, Avengers: Infinity War? Did you think that Thanos looked very… real and more human-like than you saw him last in The Avengers? The answer lies in AI, which VFX company Digital Domain used to incorporate a lot more of actor Josh Brolin’s recognisable features onto the face of Thanos.
An AI algorithm was trained on high-resolution scans of Brolin’s face that tracks his expressions down to individual wrinkles. This information was then fed into a machine learning algorithm that automatically mapped the resulting face renders onto Thanos’ body, using a library of high-res face scans.
With this, Josh Brolin could also act with his other co-stars in scenes, not alone with a green screen, encouraging a more nuanced performance and bringing the character of Thanos to life.
Besides bringing you more realistic looking characters, AI is also the reason why many of us can stay on our smartphones for long periods of time, scrolling through feeds or going on binge-watch marathons.
If you’re a frequent user of Netflix, for example, you might have realised that it only displays your favourites, or things that would interest you, and that’s all with the help of AI. With the analysis of hundreds of records, it suggests TV shows, movies and documentaries similar to those you've seen — all while considering the time of day and what day it is, to entertain you for longer.
Data has existed forever, but AI is using data to keep us entertained. Entertainment as we know it is changing — possibly for the better.
Data and AI are revolutionising Asia. At Eastspring Investments, our investment professionals are on the constant lookout for companies that can benefit from this trend. Learn more about Eastspring Investments, here.