Grimes debuts an AI-driven lullaby to help you relax

Ever wondered what Grimes and Elon Musk’s five month old baby, X Æ A-XII – nicknamed X – listens to when it’s time for a nap? Well, wonder no further, because Grimes has shared an ambient soundscape, created following a search for “a better baby sleeping situation”.

Appropriately titled “AI Lullaby”, the track (if you can call it that) is a collaboration between the musician, who also contributes vocals, and the AI music app Endel. Driven by artificial intelligence, the soundscape will evolve to match weather conditions, the user’s heart rate, the time of day, and more (because AI has its uses, besides posing an existential threat to humanity). The result, apparently, is extra focus throughout the day, or easier sleep at night.

“When you have a baby, you’re always using white noise machines,” Grimes explains, speaking to the New York Times about the release. “It’s much easier to get them to sleep if you train them on some kind of audio situation. And so I was just like, could this be more artistic?”

“In general, stuff for babies is really just creatively bad,” she says, adding that she doesn’t want X’s “first introduction to the world to just be all this aimless crap”.

In fact, she reports that X had some say in the final mix of the music she shared with Endel: “The first version, there was too many sort of sharp bells, and it caused tears and just general chaos.” As she made tweaks and changes, however, “X would smile more and stuff”.

Grimes’s “AI Lullaby” will be available to listen to via Endel until December 23. Listen to a short preview in the video below.