In a groundbreaking moment, an android robot named EveR 6 took to the conductor's podium over the weekend in Seoul to lead South Korea's national orchestra in a performance.
Created by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, the two-armed robot made its debut at the National Theater of Korea on Friday, guiding musicians of the country's national orchestra, according to CNN.
The outlet described how the robot "with a humanoid face, first bowed to the audience and started waving its arms to control the tempo of the live show."
"Movements by a conductor are very detailed," Choi Soo-yeoul, who led Friday’s performance alongside the robot, told CNN.
"The robot was able to present such detailed moves much better than I had imagined."
The robot has one "critical weakness" however — it cannot listen, Choi added.
An audience member named Lee Young-ju, who studies traditional Korean music, noted that although the robot's movements were precise in keeping the rhythm, it lacked the ability to create a sense of "breath" or instant collective engagement with the orchestra.
"It seemed there was some work to be done for the robot to do the job," Lee said.
Song In-ho, another audience member, felt that EveR 6's performance was at an elementary level.
"I guess it would be able to do the conducting all by itself when it’s equipped with artificial intelligence to understand and analyze the music," Song said.
On Friday evening, the humanoid robot took the lead in guiding three of the five showcased pieces. One of those pieces was conducted jointly with Choi.
"It was a recital that showed that [robots and humans] can co-exist and complement each other, rather than one replacing the other," Choi said after the concert.
In an interview with the Korea Herald, Lee Dong-wook from KITECH, the developer of the robot, stated that EveR 6 is not a generative AI like ChatGPT.
"EveR 6 is a robot that executes programmed movements," he said. "The robot is programmed using the ‘motion capture’ technology of digitally recording a person’s baton trajectory through sensor attachments."
He further mentioned that his team plans to enhance EveR 6 by integrating artificial intelligence, aiming to make it a useful tool for conductors to request specific beats on stage.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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