Hear ‘haunting’ song by artificial intelligence in Idaho that is global contest finalist

“And I think I

Am just a lie

‘Cause when you find

Yourself behind

And I think I

Am just a lie”

That’s the chorus to a song by Idaho-based artist Pop* called “And I Think I,” which is a finalist in a global pop song competition.

But the song isn’t written by a human artist. In fact, it’s written and composed by artificial intelligence created by Idaho State assistant professor of computer science Paul Bodily.

The song — which, let’s be honest, reads a little creepy coming from an AI — is one of 15 finalists in the AI Song Contest, a global competition in which teams from around the world try to create a pop song with the help of artificial intelligence.

“Haunting is the word that you hear over and over again,” Bodily told the Idaho Statesman on Wednesday. “People listen to it, and they say, ‘well, it’s kind of haunting.’”

Bodily, along with a team of professors and a student at Idaho State that helped create the AI-composed song, said they didn’t take any liberties in interpreting the song.

But he does acknowledge that the AI-created lyrics mirror similar emotions and thoughts that many students feel when attending college.

“If you listen to the lyrics of the song, it kind of channels what we’re calling this impostor syndrome,” Bodily said. “Feeling this idea of inadequacy of questioning one’s own legitimacy, which is a feeling that is common among humans, as well among students, for sure.”

But clearly, the AI isn’t feeling these emotions (right?). So how exactly was the song created?

Creating the song

In a technical sense, the AI is provided with a database of pop music and analyzes and creates statistical models of patterns in the pre-existing music. The AI will then use these statistical and probabilistic models to analyze song patterns and create new music — including lyrics, chord progressions, rhythm and pitch — that follow similar patterns.

If equated to the human experience, Pop* took inspiration from old classics from The Beatles and John Lennon to nursery rhymes like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and created its own song.

Once Pop* had produced the lyrics and rhythm of the chorus, Bodily and his team used some other AI systems to help flesh out the rest of the song. The lyrics and song for “And I Think I” can be found on the AI Song Contest website.

“The chorus was completely written by the artificial intelligence. We took that seed, and we used other AI systems to generate more lyrics,” Bodily said. “We took other compositions that Pop* had generated and kind of repurposed some of the musical elements of those songs. And then we as the humans kind of arranged those pieces together.”

Bodily worked on the project with Idaho State associate professor of music and director of jazz studies Jon Armstrong, Brigham Young University professor of computer science and head of the Machine Intelligence and Discover lab Dan Ventura, and Idaho State vocal major Claire Smedley-Dye.

Even though different AI systems were used to help in creating lyrics for other parts of the song, they all follow a similar theme of the impostor syndrome.

“I was born as a lie, but I’ve been livin’ a truth, tell me why I’m not a lie, cause I’ve been livin’ as a truth,” is how the second verse starts, and it doesn’t get any less introspective from there.

The song is sung by a computerized voice in which the lyrics were input and are backed by a melody of acoustic instruments, such as drums, bass and electric guitar, and saxophone, that follow the progressions created by Pop*.

The AI Song Contest

Pop* first created the song in 2018, when Bodily was in grad school at BYU. During and after those grad school years, he’s been part of a computational creativity field group, which takes an interest in all things computer creativity.

Earlier in 2022, Bodily received an email about the AI Song Contest, and he thought of the song Pop* had created four years earlier.

“My mind immediately went back to this song that Pop* had generated in 2018 that, frankly, I’ve always felt was amazing considering that an AI had generated it,” Bodily said. “And I wanted more people to weigh in on that, to be able to listen to it and give me feedback on what they thought about it.”

Bodily reached out to a team of professors who could help him turn Pop*’s song into reality, and within four months, the piece was ready to be submitted.

Over 45 participants worldwide entered the competition, and Pop* and Bodily’s team are down to the final 15. Other finalists include groups from as far as China, South Korea and Poland.

The songs are judged by a 29-person jury, which accounts for 50% of the final vote, and public voting, which makes up the other 50%. Those who want to vote for Pop* can do so on the AI Song Contest website.

Voting closes on June 30, and the winner will be announced early July. Although a reward is yet to be determined, Bodily said his team is “in it to win it” and appreciates anyone who submits votes for his team.

“This has been a great opportunity to just make people aware of what we’re doing, as well as what the computer science department at ISU is doing,” Bodily said. “Our computer science department is growing, both in terms of the number of faculty and the number of students.”

And if Pop* doesn’t win? Well, judging the outro of the song, Pop* is ready to accept its fate (or maybe not):

“‘Cause if I am just a lie

I’d be able to die.”