Google's latest machine-learning project, Magenta, has released its first piece of generated art – a simple 90-second long, four-note piano melody, which was created through a trained neural network. Google even added a drum track and orchestration to prop it up. The Magenta programme has been designed to use Google's machine-learning systems to create art and music. Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that provides computers with the ability to learn without being programmed.

However, the tech giant said that “this area is in its infancy” and expressed plans to eventually create algorithms that would make “compelling and artistic content on their own.” According to a blog post by Google, Magenta wants to advance the state of machine-generated art and build a community of artists around it in the long run. The programme will use Google's open-source artificial intelligence platform TensorFlow to research machine-learning in artistic creation.

This is not the first time Google has experimented with machine-generated art. The company's DeepDream algorithm – initially developed to visualise the actions of neural networks – has become a popular image tool. Google also developed the Artists and Machine Intelligence programme to sponsor further collaborations along the same lines.

Here is the song:

Play