This Is What It Sounds Like When Humans Collaborate With AI (HBO)

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October 21, 2018

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Botnik is a Seattle-based writing collective that uses artificial intelligence and other machine learning techniques to write funny stuff. Basically, it’s a group of humans that collaborates with various bots to make stuff that probably wouldn’t get made otherwise. Like computer-generated Netflix rom-coms or Oscar ballots or new Harry Potter books.

They’re now turning their attention to music with the release of "The Songularity," an album of songs written with Voicebox, a predictive text algorithm that suggests words in the style of any source text you feed into it.

The first single is called “Bored With This Desire to Get Ripped,” which is a Smiths-esque jam set to lyrics based on the entire oeuvre of Morrissey and all Amazon customer reviews of the P90x workout DVDs.

To promote the album and Kickstarter campaign behind it (which has been funded), the group traveled to New York for a working jam session and live show.

"I hope to show people that writing in this playful way with machines can be a really good experience," Botnik CEO Jamie Brew told VICE News. "You don't always have to assume the machine is there to help you be more efficient or write things faster. There's a whole world of playful purposeless machines that do nothing of business value but are just fun."

The crowd in NYC seemed to agree.

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Harry PotterThe SongularityBored With This DesireGet RippedDVDs ToNew YorkBotnik CEO Jamie BrewVICE News You

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This Is What It Sounds Like When Humans Collaborate With AI (HBO) · Vice News · Sentinel