Beethoven is undoubtedly one of the greatest musicians. He completed 722 musical works. Unfortunately, the master died while still working on his 10th Symphony (交响曲). Now, a team of musicians and scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to complete the artist's final composition.
Dr. Matthias first came up with the idea to complete the composition in 2019. He thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday in December 2020. He began by enlisting an international team of music experts to help him with the giant task. They included music composer Walter and Dr. Ahmed, the creator of an innovative Al technology for the art market.
Ahmed and his colleagues started the process by familiarizing the Al software initially with a broad range of classical music, and then, narrowed it to just Beethoven's work. Meanwhile, Walter and his group tried to interpret the rough drafts and the handful of notes that detailed Beethoven's plans for the 10th Symphony.
The team then began the slow and careful task of feeding the Al software musical notes from the unfinished composition. To stay true to Beethoven's original composition, Ahmed's team sent Walter hundreds of AI-generated musical note variations every evening. Walter would listen to them and then select the one that he thought was closest to what the artist would have written. The Al team would add the music and rerun the software to generate the next suggestions. And piece by piece, the team was able to complete Beethoven's 10th Symphony.
The composition was firstly released on October 9, 2021. Not surprisingly, it caused some controversy (争议). Critics believe technology should not be used toreplicatethe human creative process. Ahmed and his team agree with their opinions and say their Al software is not out to replace humans—it is just a tool to help artists to express themselves in new ways.
