[Updated] Huawei uses Mate 20 Pro’s AI tech to finish 200-year old symphony

Huawei will soon reveal how Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony was meant to end; after a whopping 197 year wait. A wait matched only by how long it took my local council to rebuild my local bus station…

Using the power of AI, the Chinese handset maker will reveal next week how Schubert’s famous Symphony No. 8 (also known as the ‘unfinished symphony’) ends.

In order to complete this impressive task, Huawei trained a Mate 20 Pro smartphone to analyse the almost 200 year old music, and finish it in the style of the original composer.

197 years to finish a symphony. Still quicker than building HS2.

The company worked with award-winning composer Lucas Cantor to arrange a musical score from the melody.

The Mate 20 Pro is powered by Huawei’s flagship Kirin 980 chipset with dual neural-processing units (NPUs) designed with artificial intelligence tasks in mind.

Before Christmas it was used to help deaf children better enjoy storytime.

The phone was programmed to analyse the timbre, pitch and meter of the existing first and second movements of the symphony, to create the missing third and fourth movements.

Nobody is entirely sure why it was never finished the first time around, but what is now known is that everyone can finally get closure, as the performance is brought to life at the iconic Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, London on 4th February 2019.

Perhaps Huawei can now find a way to finish the Sagrada Família?

UPDATE: 6th February 2019 – here’s some video of the performance that took place on Monday night.