---
title: "Here’s What an Album Between a Musician and an “AI Baby” Sounds Like"
description: "Conceptual sound artist and composer Holly Herndon released her new artificial intelligence-inspired album \"PROTO\" today."
date: "2019-05-10"
modified: "2019-05-13"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/holly-herndon-proto-ai-baby-album"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "ai music"
  - "artificial intelligence"
  - "machine learning"
  - "music video"
---

# Here’s What an Album Between a Musician and an “AI Baby” Sounds Like

![Conceptual sound artist and composer Holly Herndon released her new artificial intelligence-inspired album "PROTO" today.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/holly-herndon-proto-ai-baby-album.png>)
*\<em\>Image: 4AD\</em\>*

## AI Baby's First Album

Conceptual sound artist and composer Holly Herndon released her new artificial intelligence-inspired album *PROTO* today. *PROTO*, Hedron's fourth album, was a collaboration between Herndon and a sophisticated machine-learning program called "Spawn" — her "AI baby."

Herndon's Spawn is an "inhuman intelligence housed in a DIY souped-up gaming PC" according to a [statement](<http://www.hollyherndon.com/proto>) that "places an emphasis on alien song craft and new forms of communion." Spawn also learned from "hundreds of people" how to "identify and reinterpret unfamiliar sounds in group call-and-response singing sessions" at "live training ceremonies" that took place in Berlin.

For the track "Godmother," Herndon collaborated with artist Jlin to have Spawn regurgitate electronic beats creating an eerie [nightmarish beatboxing sound](<https://futurism.com/ai-baby-spawn-holly-herndon-jlin-godmother>).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9OjL6Mjqo

## Interacting with Beauty

The official video for a different track called "Eternal" brings in the visual aspects of AI. It was "constructed from footage processed from the perspective of an intelligent machine, analyzing and searching for a face, yearning for a connection," according to a [press release](<https://www.stereogum.com/2035181/holly-herndon-eternal-video/video/>) at the time.

https://youtu.be/r4sROgbaeOs

"I don’t want to live in a world in which humans are automated off stage," added Herndon. "I want an A.I. to be raised to appreciate and interact with that beauty."

**READ MORE:** [A Chat With Holly Herndon About Making Music With AI, Artistic Necrophilia, and Embracing the Inhuman](<https://themuse.jezebel.com/a-chat-with-holly-herndon-about-making-music-with-ai-a-1834562691>) \[*Jezebel*\]

**More on Herndon:** *[Listen To An AI’s Nightmarish Beatboxing](<https://futurism.com/ai-baby-spawn-holly-herndon-jlin-godmother>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)