Tsk, guys...
The day has finally come.
Classical musicians are going to lose our jobs.
No...
The threat of AI...
- No... AI...
- ...taking our jobs.
Brett: AI is coming!
We came across a very, very...
InTeREsTinG article.
The headline says...
Whoa... Oh...
- Ooh...
- Mm... Well, yeah.
All our jobs will be gone.
Yeah.
There's something I've vaguely heard about
a little bit before, that...
in the pop music industry,
they are trying to create an AI to like,
- churn out... pop music.
- Pop music, yeah.
- And you know pop music is quite formulaic.
- Yeah.
But I never thought...
that classical music...
I mean...
I can believe it,
but I've never thought about the concept
- Yeah. Yup. Mhm.
- that AI could compose a great symphony.
We'll keep reading the article and show it in a second.
But there's actually an AI that
finished Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.
For those of you that don't know, some backstory:
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is
probably one of his most famous works.
And he stopped at two movements.
But let's read a bit more.
See what it's about.
Wow...
Dude, what?
That's pretty crazy.
- That's insane...
- How does one even do that?
I don't know. It's like...
"Schubert wrote this many perfect 4ths and 5ths."
- Oh...
- Alright, that is...
That is a big call.
Can AI achieve heart and soul?
Argh... jobs!
- Argh...
- Oh no...!
No... Musician!
- It depends on how you look at it, right? Like...
- Yeah.
There's definitely rules in music,
like theory, the perfect 5ths, 4ths...
A lot of it is expressive and intuitive.
- Who knows? Maybe there's some genius pattern
- Can AI-
that humans just...
our brain subconsciously do it.
I don't know. I'm getting nervous.
Alright, so let's listen to a little bit from the beginning,
which is what Schubert actually wrote.
So we can kinda readjust our ears to Schubert's style.
I'm getting goosebumps.
I know.
My hair is like...
A ha ha...
Everyone is coming in.
- This bit is gonna go on for like 45 minutes.
- Yeah. But you guys, in your own time,
listen to this Unfinished Symphony.
Dude, I forgot how good Schubert was.
- He's a good composer.
- So good...
It's heavenly.
Brett: Whoa...
I'm not a music expert in terms of like...
- all the composers' styles, and composition, but...
- Yeah.
Things I'm picking up on...
you know, Schubert has his famous lyrical melodies.
They're so soulful.
Winds carrying on to like, the line-
- Wind lines versus the string lines.
- Yes.
A lot of like, pizz's in the basses. Cello, bass.
And he has interesting modulations as well.
Like, going from major to minor.
Takes a master to do that.
Now, let's see what the AI does.
Dude.
- No...
- Winds!
Oh...!
Dude...
Dude, that's so good!
Is this composed by a smartphone?
Really!?
It's got literally the elements
that we were talking about just then.
- Yeah!
- The string, and then the wind, and...
strings came in together.
I mean, obviously the "dur-r-r-r-r"
- is very reminiscent of the 1st movement, right?
- Yeah!
I'm not sure if Schubert would repeat that for 3rd movement.
- 'Cause usually the 3rd movement is something different.
- It's something else, yeah.
But!
If we ignored the fact that it's meant to be a 3rd movement,
and just remember the fact that
it's a freaking computer composing this.
This could've just been the 1st movement.
Like, if you didn't tell me the AI wrote this,
and you're just like "Hey,"
"some composer called..."
"Schu-schu wrote this symphony."
- I'd be like "Dude, this is a pretty good composer!"
- Yeah.
I would not ever suspect this is written by an AI.
Dude, Schu-schu, you're amazing.
Can you imagine like, this is actually Schubert,
we just got siked?
*laugh*
Can I say...
at least it got the right periodic style.
It did. It didn't go too crazy to like...
- Classical, or too heavy Romantic.
- Yeah!
And it feels like Schubert.
Yeah, I'm sure like
Schubert experts could probably be like...
"Oh, there's something it does that's not..."
"what Schubert would do."
But it's not Bach.
It's not Shostakovich.
- It's not.
- It's definitely late Classical/early Romantic style.
Exactly.
One thing though, it's quite abrupt though...
the AI still can't get the subtleties that Schubert can make.
- Like, I guess, the phrasing and the changes, right?
- I agree.
'Cause it's so sudden...
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It's like "Dude, is this like gallop or...?"
"What are you thinking?" You know?
But like, it's impressive.
- It is very impressive.
- And especially that part,
the wind and strings started conversing again.
The crazy thing is how? How?!
- How does a phone compose this?
- I don't know.
How!?
Hey Siri,
compose me a symphony, please.
Siri: Okay, I found this on the web
Siri: for compose me a symphony please.
- Nah.
- Nah.
- Siri is back in 1990s.
- I'm not sure this part sounds like Schubert.
- It sounds a bit more like Beethoven.
Or not even Beethoven.
It feels too repetitive.
- Too... not subtle enough.
- It feels too- Yeah.
- It feels too obvious.
- Yes.
- It's too literal.
- Yup.
And the style feels a little bit more folk-ish.
Almost like...
I don't wanna say Dvořák,
- but leaning towards that side, right?
- I know what you mean, yeah.
It sounds like film music.
Jump off the cliff and fly!
...into the sky!
- Ooh, that's pretty.
- Ooh, I like that. That's pretty.
Very pretty.
Whoa...
Oh...!
Can I just say, the AI loves repeating.
It's very repetitive.
I think it's thinking literally one type of thing...
Alright, next type of Schubert technique...
- Alright, next type of Schubert technique.
- Yeah. Yeah.
I wonder if that's placebo.
'Cause imagine like you said it was a prank,
- and this is actually Schubert.
- Yeah.
- But we're just like "No no, Schubert wouldn't wrote this!"
- Yeah, exactly. A ha ha!
Whatever it is, ask your friends...
just show them this video and be like...
"We found a Schubert composition. What do you think?"
They're like "*gasp* Really?! Wow, it's amazing!"
Actually, it's an AI.
- All the universities' teachers can just prank the students.
- Yeah!
"Guys, I've discovered a Schubert's"
"latest Unfinished Symphony just got released."
"They found it."
- April fools.
- April fools.
Oh wow...
Should we listen the 4th movement?
Yeah, I wanna hear it.
To me, it's like-
It's switching between like...
Russian to like... German.
Dude.
Dude, it sounds like...
- the pizzicato movement from Tchaikovsky's Symphony.
- Yeah.
Dude, that's intense.
It's so...
abrupt.
Nah, I think I agree with you.
There's definitely moments that are absolutely incredible.
But, as a whole, to me...
it's not quite there.
You need-
You still need a composer to be able to encapsulate it.
But who knows?
Maybe give it another 20 years, AI would be like...
- just plays...
- Someone will just make AI like...
"This is the Brahms AI."
Not even that.
Imagine the AI...
...did 80% of the composing,
and then Hans Zimmer comes along and tweaks the last 20%.
- He's like "Done! My film score!"
- Oh...!
It probably already is happening.
- It probably already is-
- We just don't know that, right?
It probably already is happening, to be honest.
I wanna read the comments.
See what people think.
I can see what you mean by the Russian composers.
I don't know if it's a mistake though.
I still think it's very impressive.
- It's impressive what the AI did.
- Yeah.
Schubert's like...
"It's supposed to be unfinished! Leave me alone!"
Okay.
Fair enough. I'm not sure that's how AI works though.
I think it could just learn and go over things.
I mean, I don't know tech as well.
- I kinda get some of these comments as well.
- Yeah.
Like we said, it's not really perfect.
- Yeah.
- There are still parts where it doesn't feel like
it's an actual composer.
- I thought it did sound a bit like Disney.
- Disney/Pixar music.
- Oh...
- What a roast!
Dude...
Damn.
- Dude, the comment section is roasting the AI!
- It's pretty intense! I know.
Yeah, that's a good point.
- Exactly.
- Yeah.
I agree with both sides.
I can understand, as a musician,
and definitely people that are passionate about classical music,
it can almost border on offensive to see...
something claiming to be Schubert,
but it's clearly not.
But I think if you look at it from the lens of...
just how much work must have gone in for technology-
...to be able to do that.
That's a lot of work.
It really challenges what it means to make music,
and what it means to be human, I guess.
Ooh...
It's interesting to think about, but at the end of the day,
music is very much closely tied to subjective feelings
- and emotions.
- Yup!
And...
You know, that's definitely why we love doing it, so...
Yeah, I don't know.
- I don't know how I feel about it.
- I have conflicted thoughts.
- Conflicted thoughts.
- My emotions have been played with.
Ding ding!
It would be very interesting to me though...
to see an AI concert
not trying to be Schubert.
Because most of these criticisms were like...
"This is clearly not Schubert."
What if an AI just composes its own symphony?
That would be interesting.
It would be very interesting.
How will we judge that from a human lens?
- Ooh...
- What if the AI develops its own taste?
- Exactly!
- And it's like...
"This is better than Schubert."
"I don't want-"
- We're gonna lose our jobs. Help!
- Yeah.
- Ling Ling will save us all.
- Ling Ling will come and save the day.
So make sure you're practicing, and...
Please accent the like button.
We'll see you guys next time.
