Beethoven sold out, AI at work: In the engine room of music!

I visit the German Museum Bonn - Forum for Artificial Intelligence. Beethoven is once again 'sold out'. There are still plenty of music boxes for Bach, Hayden, Mozart, Schubert, and Vivaldi. 'Für Elise' is out of stock.

But I am here for something else: Mission AI. Since Beethoven 'speaks' to us in our project with the support of artificial intelligence, I want to learn to understand AI better. It quickly becomes clear to me where AI has long been 'embedded' and that we (almost) all use it daily.

I discover a station 'AI x Music': Here I can select a composer and follow the point on the monitor. This way I can hear how the AI 'continues to compose'. The system was trained with data sets from classical music. It does not compose as a human would: It tries to determine which 'building block' from its programming should best be used next in the composition.

There are two pieces by Beethoven to choose from: Piano Sonata No. 8 and Symphony 5. I choose the latter, follow the point ... hm, I think this is probably more exciting for musicians. I quickly lose interest.

With the 'Monday Painters' I am more persistent and amazed at how quickly the AI recognizes many of my drawings on the monitor, including a tractor and a bicycle, but some not at all, e.g., a ladder, where I am sure a human would have recognized it after three or four strokes - definitely still room for improvement. Conclusion: The museum is absolutely worth seeing and experiencing. AI and its use in the arts - I don't know where this will lead.