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AI

French Songwriter Kiesza Composes First Mainstream Music Album Co-Written With AI (bbc.com) 51

Posted by BeauHD from the first-of-its-kind dept.
dryriver shares a report from the BBC, highlighting "a new album that features everything from cowboy sci-fi to Europop." What's special about the album -- Hello World by Canadian singer Kiesza -- is that it's the first full-length mainstream music album co-written with the help of artificial intelligence. You can judge the quality for yourself: First, view the single "Hellow Shadow" with Canadian singer Kiesza. Next, the BBC story, which seems to think that the album is actually rather good: "Benoit Carre has written songs for some of France's biggest stars: from Johnny Halliday -- the French Elvis, who died last year -- to chanteuse Francoise Hardy. But this month, the 47-year-old is releasing an album with a collaborator he could never have dreamt of working with. It's not a singer, or rapper. It's not even really a musician. It's called Flow Machines, and it is, arguably, the world's most advanced artificially-intelligent music program. For musicians, there's been one good thing about these projects so far: the music they've produced has been easy to dismiss, generic and uninspiring -- hardly likely to challenge Bob Dylan in the songwriting department. But Carre's album, Hello World, is different for the simple reason that it's good. Released under the name SKYGGE (Danish for shadow), it features everything from sci-fi cowboy ballads to Europop, and unlike most AI music, if you heard it on the radio, you wouldn't think something had gone horribly wrong. Flow Machines, developed at Sony's Computer Science Laboratories in Paris, does indeed write original melodies, Carre adds. It also suggests the chords and sounds to play them with. But Carre says a human is always needed to stitch the songs together, give them structure and emotion. Without people, its songs would be a bit rubbish. "There were many people involved in this," he says, listing the likes of Belgian house producer Stromae and Canadian pop star Kiesza. "They gave their soul, their enthusiasm. I think that's the most important point of the album, in a way -- that it's a very human one.'"
United Kingdom

British Foreign Secretary on Surveillance Worries: '"Law Abiding Citizens Have N 404

Posted by samzenpus from the no-big-deal dept.
Bruce66423 writes "The government minister in charge of GCHQ, the UK's equivalent of the NSA, has used those immortal words, 'Only terrorists, criminals and spies should fear secret activities of the British and US intelligence agencies.' From the article: '...In an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, Mr Hague refused to say whether the British government knew of the existence of Prism before it emerged last week. “I can’t confirm or deny in public what Britain knows about and what Britain doesn’t, for obvious reasons,” he said. However, he implied that the revelations had not taken him by surprise.'" While many are concerned about the reach of PRISM overseas, the Finnish Foreign Minister says he plans to continue using Outlook for email.

Comment Like from a Vonnegut story... (Score 1) 622

by plutoXL (#41977887) Attached to: With NCLB Waiver, Virginia Sorts Kids' Scores By Race
It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is smarter, better-looking, stronger, or faster than anyone else.
The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.
The government forces citizens to wear "handicaps" (a mask if they are too handsome or beautiful, earphones with deafening radio signals to make intelligent people unable to concentrate and form thoughts, and heavy weights to slow down those who are too strong or fast).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

Comment Win 8 and Kinect (Score 1) 60

by plutoXL (#40955739) Attached to: Kinect 2 Sensor Output Image Leaks
My guess is that with Win 8 Metro interface Microsoft might try to move not just into tablets, but also into TV market.

Think about it for a minute:
  1. Win 8 will stop being x86 exclusive, and will move on ARM too (Win 8 RT),
  2. MS might start fully supporting Kinect to control Win 8 metro interface,
  3. MS and partner TV manufacturers begin installing ARM processors and Win 8 RT on TVs, adding ability to connect Kinect through USB (or maybe even produce TVs with Kinect already installed),
  4. MS app store is now on many TVs in many living rooms,
  5. Profit..?

Purely speculation on my side, but might be the logical next step for MS.

Comment Re:So that's really why he gave up his citizenship (Score 1) 445

by plutoXL (#40089787) Attached to: Facebook, Zuckerberg Sued Over IPO
Not true.

In many countries, if you move outside, even for more than 6 months, you are still considered resident (and also required to pay taxes) under certain conditions.
For example, you might still pay taxes if you have personal interests in you country of origin, like if you own property or if you significant other and children still live there.

It is different from country to country. In my case, I am expat from European country living in the middle east more than 5 years already, and I would still have to pay income tax back home in case i owned any property there. I don't, BTW. :/
Science

Instant Messaging With Neutrinos 262

Posted by samzenpus from the truly-instant-messaging dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A group of scientists has for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, 'Neutrino.' From the article: 'Many have theorized about the possible uses of neutrinos in communication because of one particularly valuable property: they can penetrate almost anything they encounter. If this technology could be applied to submarines, for instance, then they could conceivably communicate over long distances through water, which is difficult, if not impossible, with present technology. And if we wanted to communicate with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.'"

Comment Re:or just don't fuck up this planet so bad (Score 1) 438

by plutoXL (#38115372) Attached to: Human Survival Depends On Space Exploration, Says Hawking
There was a cost-benefit analysis done by Philip Morris for the Czech government that showed economical "benefit" of smoking.

It is not unbiased, but it is interesting to read about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Finance_Balance_of_Smoking_in_the_Czech_Republic

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1442555.stm

Off course, I guess that a value of human life is more than just how much they can produce (or perhaps we should all agree just to kill our grandparents and parents as soon they retire to stop them from being a burden on our economy, Philip Morris style).
Google

Belgian Newspapers Delisted On Google 385

Posted by timothy from the you-will-not-be-assimilated dept.
D H NG writes "After being ordered by the Belgian courts to 'remove from its Google.be and Google.com sites, and in particular, cached links visible on Google Web and the Google News service, all articles, photographs and graphics of daily newspapers published in French and German by Belgian publishers,' Google had removed all traces of the newspapers in question from all its search services. The newspapers, however, are crying foul, and alleged that it was done in retaliation for being sued for copyright violations."

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