Google celebrates Johann Sebastian Bach with first ever AI-powered doodle

It's always fun when you switch on your Google browser and find those Google-theme bubbles doing the dance next to the logo because you know there is a new doodle today. However, it's even more fun when the doodle is an interactive one. Today's doodle is one such, and it's even more special if you are a Bach fan!Johann Sebastian Bach, world-renowned German composer, and musician is being celebrated in the first ever AI-powered Doodle![caption id="attachment_6305761" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A cartoon caricature of Johann Sebastian Bach.[/caption]The doodle gives you a preview of how notes and melodies work, and how harmonies are formed. Once you get a little hang of that, it then lets you create your own. Google will ask you to compose a two measure melody of your choice, which Google then harmonises using Machine Learning. Believe me, how much ever bad your melody is, the AI is going to make your choice of notes sound really awesome, at least to you it would.You can download the music you create and even share it on your social media platforms.Here is the one I created. I am convinced that Bach's blood runs in my veins!Google says, "The model used in today's Doodle was developed by Magenta Team AI Resident Anna Huang, who developed Coconet: a versatile model that can be used in a wide range of musical tasks—such as harmonizing melodies or composing from scratch."[caption id="attachment_6305781" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Coconet was trained on 306 of Bach’s chorale harmonizations.[/caption]As the doodle reveals when the harmony is being processed, Coconet was trained on 306 of Bach’s chorale harmonisations. Apparently, Bach's chorales always have four voices, each carrying their own melodic line, while creating a rich harmonic progression when played together. This structure created a mould for the machine learning model to be trained.Johann Sebastian Bach was born in the small German town of Eisenach on this day in 1685. From the age of 10, he was brought up by his elder brother, who was also a musician. Primarily known as an exceptional organist during his lifetime, Bach also understood how to build and repair the complex inner mechanisms of pipe organs. He lived to see only a handful of his works published, but more than 1,000 that survived in manuscript form are now published and performed all over the world.