Title: Fusing Thai and AI Music: Reimagining Culture with Machine Learning

Abstract:

This will be a hybrid talk and performance. yaboihanoi ญาบอยฮานอย (Lamtharn Hanoi Hantrakul) is an AI Sound Artist and AI Research Scientist making music with an uncompromising use of Thai tunings and rhythms paired with the soundscape of modern bass music. In this talk, he will be showing behind the scenes of how he approaches composing new electronic Thai music powered by Diffusion and DDSP, as well as explore deep questions about how machine learning can empower and challenge music, arts and culture, particularly those from his home region of Southeast Asia. He will also be speaking on these themes at SONAR this year in June 2025.

Bio:

Lamtharn “Hanoi” Hantrakul is an AI Research Scientist and AI Sound Artist born and based in Bangkok, Thailand. He has over 8 years of experience in the US and Chinese Tech industry, where he developed state-of-the-art Generative AI models for Google, TikTok and ByteDance 字节跳动 as a Senior AI Research Scientist. He is the co-inventor of notable technologies like Google’s open source Differentiable Digital Signal Processing (DDSP) library and the recent music large language model SEED-MUSIC from ByteDance/TikTok deployed in Doubao 豆包 (China’s ChatGPT). 

As a sound artist, his electronic music under the moniker “ญาบอยฮานอย yaboihanoi” is known for an uncompromising use of Thai tunings and rhythms. In 2022, he won the international AI Song Contest with his track “อสุระเทวะชุมนุม Enter Demons and Gods” and has since collaborated with many renowned artists, choreographers and creatives in exhibitions and performances across Southeast Asia and East Asia. His musical instrument “Fidular”, which showcases his cross-cultural approach to instrument design and engineering, was awarded an A’ Silver Award and Core77 Design Award in 2017 and put on permanent exhibition in 2018 at the Musical Instruments Museum in Phoenix, AZ. 

Hanoi’s unique vision on how machine learning can empower culture and respect local traditions have been covered by international media including Deutschlandfunk, Scientific American and Fast Company. He looks forward to bringing his passion for music, technology and culture from Bangkok to Barcelona for the MTG lab!

Follow the seminar online: https://zoom.us/j/5911355273

Activity in the frame of:

Cátedra UPF-BMAT en Inteligencia Artificial y Música (TSI-100929-2023-1). Project funded by Secretaría de Estado de Digitalización e Inteligencia Artificial, the European Union-Next Generation EU, and by BMAT Music Innovators, the Music Operating System