What a musical automaton can tell us about being human | Simon Kirby | TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh

TL;DR

A musician tells the story of how they built Cyberon, a 21st century player piano obsessed with its social media popularity.

Transcript

hello yes so my day job is uh studying the origins of human uniqueness but today I'm going to tell talk about something different I'm going to tell you a story about how I ended up helping build what One reviewer called by some distance the barest object ever conceived by anyone anywhere which honestly is I think the best review I've ever had for a... Read More

Key Insights

• 🎼 Cyberon was inspired by century-old musical machines, highlighting the fascination with technology and music throughout history.
• 🥹 The project aimed to reflect our obsession with social media popularity and held up a mirror to our own behaviors.
• 👯 Cyberon's simplistic tweets and posts garnered significant engagement, demonstrating the willingness of people to interact with even the most basic of AI systems.
• 🌍 The project's unexpected fame and recognition, including winning a BAFTA and being acquired by a national museum, illustrate the impact of building technology that resonates with people.
• 🏛️ The narrator emphasizes the importance of embracing flaws in machines and building AI systems that are transparent about their limitations.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did the idea for building Cyberon, a social media bot made of wood and brass, come about?

The idea came from a fascination with century-old musical automata and the popularity obsession that 21st-century musicians and humans have on social media.

Q: What are some of the objects used to create Cyberon's musical instruments?

The objects include an Indian classical instrument with added motors, an electric drill, and gramophone horns.

Q: How does Cyberon determine its emotional state and play different kinds of music?

Cyberon Googles itself every 15 seconds to track its own stats and obsess over its popularity. Its emotional state affects the type of music it plays, with happiness resulting in cheerful tunes and misery leading to depressed tunes.

Q: What unexpected response did Cyberon receive from the audience?

The audience started responding and replying to Cyberon's emotional state on Twitter and Facebook, engaging in banter and even giving it presents.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The narrator, along with musicians and artists, set out to build a 21st century player piano inspired by century-old musical automata.

• They gathered old objects and added robotic components to automate them into musical instruments.

• Cyberon, the final creation, is driven by its own emotions, obsessively tracking its social media popularity and playing music accordingly.