Japanese girl band AKB48 releases AI-generated single after fans preferred it to song written by human

Members of AKB48, pictured on stage in 2021 Chen Lihong/VCG/Getty Images

Top Japanese girl band AKB48 have released a single created using AI, after it proved more popular with fans than a rival song written by famed J-pop producer Yasushi Akimoto.

As part of a songwriting competition on a Nippon TV program called “Akimoto Yasushi vs AI Akimoto Yasushi: AKB48 New Song Production Contest,” the AI – a version of Google’s Gemini – was trained on Akimoto’s library of lyrics and his public statements from interviews to develop its own creative voice,

The AI’s creation, “Omoide Scroll / “Memory Scroll,” described in Japanese media as a techno-pop track about heartbreak in the smartphone era, won 14,225 votes out of a total 24,760, according to the organizers.

Akimoto’s own song, titled