The world’s first quantum AI song shakes up everything we thought about music - Futura, le média qui explore le monde

A quantum leap in music creation

Electro artist ILĀ has just released a song unlike any other. This brand new track was made by combining generative artificial intelligence with quantum computing—a groundbreaking approach that doesn’t require training on the works of other musicians. In a world where generative AI is often accused of “stealing” from artists, some believe it can also open new creative doors. That’s exactly the bet made by British startup Moth. Joining forces with ILĀ, they created a new track called Recurse, mixing generative AI and quantum computing like peanut butter and jelly—only with more algorithms and fewer calories.

Quantum tech, but make it musical

The music is available on YouTube and other streaming services, including Spotify. The music video even features a “quantum blur” effect developed by Moth; so if you want to see what quantum fuzziness looks like, look no further. To make Recurse, they worked with Moth’s custom software platform Archaeo, which runs atop a quantum computer from the company IQM. Unlike traditional generative AI models, this one wasn’t trained on a monstrous pile of internet data, stuffed with clips from other artists. This training process was strictly limited to content created by ILĀ. In other words, every ounce of creative training data was homegrown.

Listen to ILĀ’s track “Recurse,” generated by artificial intelligence running on a quantum computer. © ILĀ

Collaboration instead of imitation

This AI doesn’t generate music entirely from scratch like some of its counterparts. Instead, it helps the artist by recombining musical sequences. As ILĀ puts it:

“I created a piece of music just like I normally would, and these sequences were used by Moth to train this generative system.”

For Moth, this track marks what they see as a “decisive moment” for “the future of creativity itself.”

Recurse goes infinite

If Recurse has piqued your curiosity, there’s more to explore. You can also check out Recurse [Infinite Mix]. While the original Recurse sticks to a classic format—clocking in a bit over five minutes—Recurse [Infinite Mix] was produced using the same method, but with one big twist: this version is generated in real time, endlessly looping without a finish line in sight.

So, whether you’re after a bite-sized taste of the quantum-AI sound, or you’re ready for an infinite music journey, ILĀ and Moth are flipping the script on music production—one quantum leap at a time.