A new study has revealed images that have been created by an artificial intelligence engine after it was given the lyrics to some of this year's biggest hits as prompts. Songs included the likes of Harry Styles' 'As It Was', The Weeknd's 'Die For You and Taylor Swift's 'Anti-Hero' - and the results have turned out to be fascinating.
The study, which was conducted by music technology company Pirate, show how artificial intelligence interprets song lyrics. The firm used AI image generator MidJourney to create pictures based on lyrics from some of the latest and biggest pop songs.
MidJourney was given iconic lines from songs by Harry Styles, Taylor Swift - who is going on tour in the UK next year - The Weeknd, SZA and Miley Cryrus, leaving the model to produce a selection of four pictures for each. The results are revealed below.
Commenting on the AI-generated graphics, a spokesperson for Pirate said: "These are lyrics that have been listened to and sung millions of times, becoming embedded in people’s minds and part of their daily lives. So it’s fascinating to see how an artificial intelligence creates imagery that ranges from the striking to the beautiful to the bizarre.
"It reminds us that true human artistry is still an essential part of the creative process in music, but also that the advance of AI could help inspire new ways of thinking about the craft of writing songs. From a music artist’s perspective, AI can also help lower some of the costs associated with self-releasing music such as design for album art or even creating music videos."
1. As It Was by Harry Styles
The AI produces some otherworldly pictures in response to the chorus lyrics from the Harry Styles hit, which has racked up more than 2.4 billion streams on Spotify. The images mostly feature couples in a romantic twilight with satellites featuring prominently – bringing to life the theme of the one you love being the only other person on the planet.
2. Anti-Hero by Taylor Swift
The lead single from Taylor Swift’s Midnights has reached nearly one billion streams on Spotify and the AI interprets the lyrics quite literally. The image show a series of men in superhero-style costumes looking tired and dejected, surrounded by debris – an appropriate vision for a song which predicts devastation and loss.
3. Die For You by The Weeknd
The song which was on The Weeknd’s 2016 album Starboy got a new lease of life this year. The original and a remix featuring Ariana Grande have now been streamed on Spotify a combined two billion times.
The MidJourney engine created a couple embracing in each of its four images – in one of them the woman is sporting a prominent skull tattoo – likely inspired by the mention of death in the line.
4. Flowers by Miley Cyrus
After its release in January this year, Flowers became the fastest song to reach one billion streams on Spotify. The imagery of the lyrics translates directly into the pictures produced by the AI, with flowers shown artfully strewn across a beach.
Two of the images feature a solitary person, who looks fairly mournful in each, which could be seen as at odds with the song’s defiant tone following a break-up.
5. Kill Bill by SZA
SZA’s song about getting extreme revenge on an ex contains chorus lyrics that MidJourney considered to be in contravention of its community guidelines, so it refused to create images based on them. However the less violent line: "I did it all for love, I did it all on no drugs" was allowed.
So it produced some beautifully colourful results, all portraits of women, with flowers, butterflies and hints of psychedelia a recurring theme.
