Computer generated music often sounds fine, but this comment under http://youtu.be/o0tH_mHXR9c http://youtu.be/o0tH_mHXR9c sums it up: the problem with compute

Computer generated music often sounds fine, but this comment under http://youtu.be/o0tH_mHXR9c http://youtu.be/o0tH_mHXR9c sums it up: the problem with computer generated music as in this example is that it is formless. The phrases are too expository and the example lacks any identifiable relationship to anything previously stated. If compared to written language, this example writes beautiful sentences but the paragraph makes no sense. This limitation can surely be overcome - with AI developments and deep learning, algorithms would become capable of learning from human compositions, ultimately producing works indistinguishable from human ones (thereby passing a Turing test of sorts), and even better ones (just like chess engines routinely beat even genius human players now). This will lead to a world where all casual music can be improvised by computers to user's liking (even adjusting parameters to accessible social context, such as feeding off your Facebook status, or how things are at work etc., again, mastering that skill by learning from your reactions, which are easily detectable - skipping to the next track, replaying bits that you liked), and then every played piece can really be one of a kind; like a kaleidoscope that produces unique pleasing images on demand. The next step might be to generate compelling movie scenarios (I have a feeling that soap operas and genre movies would be the first to be automated like that...), and ultimately even movies themselves. An interesting TED Talk (from December last year, so quite new) that I've watched recently: http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_howard_the_wonderful_and_terrifying_implications_of_computers_that_can_learn http://www.ted.com/talks/jeremy_howard_the_wonderful_and_ter... The important shift would be to stop generating music, or other artistic content, out of a fixed set of preprogrammed principles and allow neural networks to derive the rules by themselves, even coming up with new genres. Instead of teaching computer to write music, you just let it teach itself.