For almost 200 years Schubert's 8th symphony has been known as his unfinished work because the piece was never completed. Until now... Huawei combined the power of AI with human expertise to complete the ‘unfinished symphony’.
With a substantial delegation of, among others, Dutch press and other influencers, we travelled to London. There, in the Cadogan Hall, the completed piece was brought to life by the English Session Orchestra. Huawei worked on the composition with composer and Emmy winner Lucas Cantor.
Artificial intelligence...
With this project Huawei wants to show what artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of, using the dual NPU (Neural Processing Unit) of the HUAWEI Mate20 Pro smartphone. By analysing the timbre, pitch and meter of the existing first and second movements of the symphony, the AI model generated the melody for the final and missing third and fourth parts.
“At Huawei we are always looking for ways in which technology can make the world a better place. So, we taught our Mate20 Pro smartphone to analyse an unfinished, nearly 200 year old piece of music and finish it in the style of the original composer”, said Walter Ji, President CBG, Huawei Western Europe. “We used the power of AI to extend the boundaries of what is humanly possible and see the positive role technology can have on modern culture. If our smartphone is intelligent enough to do this, what else is possible?”
...and the human brain
Lucas Cantor: “My role was to draw out the good ideas of AI and fill in the possible gaps to ensure the final result was ready to be played by a symphony orchestra. The result of this collaboration with AI proves that technology offers incredible possibilities and the significant and positive impact it can have on modern culture.”
About Huawei
Huawei is a leading global producer and supplier of network equipment, IT solutions and consumer products. Huawei has 15 R&D centers worldwide and is built on 30 years of experience in the telecom and IT industry. The products and services are available in more than 170 countries, serving a third of the world's population. Huawei Consumer is one of Huawei's three business units with consumer products such as smartphones, tablets, mobile broadband devices, wearables and cloud services. Huawei is currently the second largest smartphone brand in the world and is expected to ship more than 200 million smartphones worldwide this year. Huawei has 650 employees in the Netherlands and 2 branches with its head office in Amsterdam.
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