Artificial intelligence can do amazing things, but can it produce a good pop song? A team of IUPUI faculty and students is competing in an international contest to answer that question. The group is one of 15 finalists in the AI Song Contest.

The Dutch public broadcasting company VPRO founded the AI Song contest in 2020. The goal of the competition was to explore the use of artificial intelligence in song creation. Teams may consist of musicians, data scientists, programmers or anyone interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence and music.

The Indy Rubbish Mice, a band name generated by artificial intelligence, submitted an entry called “Only If You Wanna.” The IUPUI team created the lyrics, melodies, harmonies, rhythms, instrumental sounds and even human-sounding singing voices with AI, machine learning and deep learning applications, most of which are commonly available to consumers.

The Indy Rubbish Mice team members are:

• Emmy Husmann, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in music technology.
• Jakub Walerstein, pursuing a Master of Science in music technology.
• Ian Mast, pursuing a Master of Science in music technology.
• Dana Goot, Ph.D. student.
• Bhawna Rathi, Ph.D. student.
• Timothy Hsu, assistant professor of music and arts technology.
• Horia Petrache, associate professor and director of graduate program, physics.  
• Jason Palamara, assistant professor of music and arts technology.

Palamara and Hsu recently started an artificial intelligence music working group. It gives the IUPUI community a place to discuss current issues and topics in AI and music. The group formed the backbone of this year’s AI Song Contest team.

You can vote for The Indy Rubbish Mice through June 30. The winning team will be announced at the Wallifornia Music & Innovation Summit in Liège, Belgium.

Jason Palamara is an assistant professor in the Department of Music and Arts technology in the School of Engineering and Technology.