Live web-forum Q&A on Friendly AI, Thu. May 24 (Hebrew)

Mon, 21 May 2012 01:54:37 +1000

Submitted by JoshuaFox • 2 votes • 1 comment

On May 24 from 7 to 9pm Israel time, I will be answering questions and leading a discussion (in Hebrew) sponsored by the Galileo popular science magazine.

The topic of discussion will be my article "Superhuman Intelligence, Unhuman Intelligence," from the May edition of Galileo.

URL for the discussion: http://forums.ifeel.co.il/forum_topics.asp?FID=17

1 comment

Music: Hatsune Miku 3D Live in Los Angeles on the 2nd July 2011

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 09:09:22 +1000

Submitted by listic • 5 votes • 22 comments

Hatsune Miku is a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, developed by Crypton Future Media using Yamaha's Vocaloid technology. She will be preforming live in the NOKIA Theatre in Los Angeles Convention Center on the 2nd July 2011, during the ANIME EXPO 2011.

Vocaloid technology was first released in 2004, but didn't meet wide recognition at first. When designing the second generation of Vocaloids, Crypton Future Media asked the manga artist Kei to design an avatar for their upcoming synthesized voice. The first to be released, "CV01 - Hatsune Miku" became runaway success, as thousands of internet users started making their songs with Hatsune Miku. Sega made a game and helped with organizing the first solo live perfomance in Tokyo on March 9, 2010, titled "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day"(Miku's Day Thanksgiving). The concert included some of the best songs made by users, performed by Hatsune Miku and a band of human musicians. The concert in LA on 2nd July, 2011 should be the second of a kind and the first one outside Japan of that level (there was another event, and it is said to be not that good without Sega's involvement; but now the organisers promise "a few improvements over the original event")

Examples of Vocaloids in action:

Vocaloid Sweet Ann (English): Let it be (the Beatles)

Vocaloid Hatsune Miku (Japanese): Nebula (Tripshots)

The previous event "Miku no Hi Kanshasai 39's Giving Day"(Miku's Day Thanksgiving) on March 9, 2010 at the Zepp Tokyo in Odaiba, Tokyo

Nice fragment on YouTube (HD too)

torrent of the whole thing in HD

What seems to be the official event page:

Hatsune Miku 3D Live in Los Angeles

It looks like the tickets are sold out, but maybe it will be possible to buy some tickets at the event or something?. I would try if I was not living half the globe away.

I think that it's fitting for a community of people interested in the possibility of a technological singularity to take interest in the kind of entertainment that pushes the envelope of what's possible with technology. Human voice was the last musical instrument unconquered by synthesis. Now this page of human history is turned, and for me, Miku is the symbol of it. If there are technically better voice synthesizers (which is quite possible, since Miku was released in 2007), they don't have their own concerts yet.

Sorry if this is unappropriate.

22 comments

Articles Tagged ‘event’ - Less Wrong Discussion

Live web-forum Q&A on Friendly AI, Thu. May 24 (Hebrew)

Music: Hatsune Miku 3D Live in Los Angeles on the 2nd July 2011