Indian Musician Shankar Mahadevan, Google DeepMind team up to recreate 'Rubaroo’ - Check all details here

In a groundbreaking collaboration, Indian music legend Shankar Mahadevan has teamed up with Google DeepMind for a Lab Session exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence and Indian musical traditions. 

The project centered around the experimental toolset Music AI Sandbox, developed by Google DeepMind and YouTube, which helps musicians generate new sounds and transform music using simple text prompts.

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Over 30 hours in Mahadevan’s Mumbai studio, the team experimented with AI-generated musical elements drawn from India’s rich traditions—including dholak and tabla sounds—to craft the original track “Rubaroo”. Using prompts in Music AI Sandbox, Mahadevan created instrumental loops and layered vocal melodies to build the song. For lyrics, they tapped into Google’s TextFX experiment, using AI-generated metaphors based on the word “rubaroo” (meaning “face-to-face”).

Shankar Mahadevan praised the technology, saying, “Sandbox prods you and makes your brain think in a particular direction… whether it be creating a melody or transforming a piece.”

This collaboration showcases the potential for AI to enhance—not replace—human creativity, offering a glimpse into a future where tradition and technology compose together.
Interested artists can sign up to try Music AI Sandbox via labs google.