Microsoft's AI writes a new Christmas Carol in Norway

Today is the last day in which we can equally be cheered and tortured by the yearly deluge of Christmas Carols, and just in time, Microsoft Norway has unveiled their own contribution to the genre, created with help of Microsoft’s new AI tech.

The tune, titled  ‘Joyful Time in The City’, was crafted by a cooperation between Microsoft’s AI technology and Thomas Holm, a contestant on Norway’s popular musical talent show “The Voice” and took only 2 weeks to realize.

The melody and lyrics were formed through detailed analysis of over 50 classic Christmas carols, which the computer used to construct its interpretation of what makes a great carol. Machine Learning tools identified patterns in the tunes and used those to predict what should come next. The final result is a heart-warming mix of Christmas carols from decades past and popular songs from the present day. Holm provided the talent to pull it all together.

“Technology has always inspired artists to push boundaries,” Thomas said. “But this time the machine had to come up with the music itself.”

Commenting on the need for a human partner, Thomas noted “I’m not afraid that AI will take over music. It could be a great band member though!”

See the result below:

https://youtu.be/3eDkQEhXqtY