Artificial intelligence has broken through a sound barrier. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an AI system that “watches” a silent video clip and generates a sound so convincing that most human viewers cannot tell whether it is computer-generated.
The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab says its “deep learning algorithm” is the first to pass a “Turing test for sound” — making noises indistinguishable from the real thing.
The Visually Indicated Sounds system, or Vis, was trained to analyse the sounds made when a stick hits, scrapes or prods a variety of objects, from leaves and water to soil and steel.