“When we started this process we were still reeling from the bushfires,” Dr Uitdenbogerd said.
“So we used our AI processes to turn koala grunts, kookaburra laughs, and tassie devil barks into a kind of instrument, reflecting our concern for all the wildlife dying in the bushfires.
“As the year progressed, [a] coronavirus hit and so we all had to stay at home – many of the lyrics speak to this experience.
“So you can treat it as a bit of fun, but lines such as 'the music of the earth has arrived’ do also give it that serious message of: ‘look after each other, and look after the planet’.”
All these lyrics – along with the melody – were created using a combination of AI processes and human intervention.
Producers from Uncanny Valley used algorithms to turn samples of 200 Eurovision songs – including perhaps the most famous, ABBA’s hit Waterloo – into new melodies.
Lyrics were generated by feeding “seed” words into a computer, which then spat out a series of phrases that were selected by the producers.
Dr Uitdenbogerd’s role was to provide an algorithmic “pattern matching” technique, which can match words and melodies together – a process she refined in her PhD.
The winner was decided by a mix of popular vote and a panel of AI experts, including Vincent Koops (from the Netherlands), Anna Huang (US) and Ed Newton-Rex (UK).
The judges commented on the high quality of the entries.
“Composing a song with AI is hard because you have all the creative challenges that come with song writing, but you also have to juggle with getting the machine learning right.
“They not only pushed the boundaries of their personal creativity, but also gave the audience a look into the exciting future of human-AI musical collaboration.”