Singaporean singer Benjamin Kheng just scored a collaboration with someone that doesn’t really exist in real life.
Benjamin Kheng lent his voice to a song with local virtual influencer Rae in what is considered to be Asia’s first singing duet between a human and a computer-generated model. Titled Worlds, Rae’s voice is generated using text-to-speech technology.
“[E]xcited to share this song @benjaminkheng and I put together. [H]e sang, and we experimented with adding an electronic touch to my voice. it was both real, and unreal,” an Instagram post announcing the project to Rae’s fans said today.
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The nearly minute-long music video showed Kheng serenading and playing the piano while Rae sang her lines in a robotic pitch programmed using artificial intelligence.
Kheng, who became famous for being in local band The Sam Willows, said that the song was written about a loved one who had passed on. Even though Rae was a virtual entity, the process felt “real” to him.
Rae was created last October and has since amassed over 500,000 followers on social media. She has participated in several photoshoots and collaborated with brands and artists such as Singaporean street artist Sam Lo, and even launched her own non-fungible tokens online.
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