Let’s be fair, the Internet and Kanye West have a contentious relationship at best. While West has long beenfodder for comedians to make fun of, and endless memes abound of the great man, one US teen has found a way to merge both Kanye and technology into something that science fiction writer’s have dreamed of for decades; a AI program, taught to rap by West’slyrics.
Robbie Barrat, a 17 year-old student from rural West Virginia, recently made a bet with friends in his high school programming clubs about whether or not artificial intelligence could ever get to the point where they accomplish tasks better than humans. The next time his programming club met, Barrat had proved his theory.
AsQuartzreports,Barrat managed to teach himself programming, making use of the fact that numerous tech companies give out the source code for their sites and products; namely as a way to promote learning and to encourage others to experiment with code.Upon teaching himself to make simple games of Tic-Tac-Toe, Barrat widened his scope and set to work on his rapping AI.
The AI was designed to at first arrange rap lyrics into new sequences, but after a few days of tweaking and testing, and running 6,000 Kanye West bars through the program, it can now write lines all by itself, complete with appropriate pauses.
Sure, it’s not up to the same standard as Kanye just yet, but considering its managing to deliver funky-fresh rhymes with spitfire precision (okay, maybe we’re exaggerating now), who knows how many years until they have to add a ‘Best Computer-Generated Rapper’ award at the Grammys? Check it out for yourself below.
This article originally appeared on Tone Deaf. You can check out the original article here.
