Artists teach a choir of GPU fans to sing with AI and the result is not as soulless as you might think

A strange machine made up of many symmetrical, white and gold cabinets containing computer fans. Neatly organised, white wires trail from an embossed central unit made of brass to these fan cabinets either side. The entire machine is mounted on a brick wall.
(Image credit: Leon Chew, The Call, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst with sub, Serpentine, 2024)

From simulating online social interactions to generating entire podcast episodes based on whatever data you feed it, AI is depressingly inescapable in our present moment. Now, AI has been harnessed to create a 'GPU pipe organ'  (via Tom's Hardware) — or rather, a wall of fans that acoustically emits a choral sound thanks to a diffusion model minutely adjusting the RPM of each blower.

When you consider the totally justified ethical concerns surrounding how many AI projects gather their data sets (ie, often by stealing from other creators), this art project is bound to raise some hackles. However, there's a twist in this tale, so reel your shoulder blades in.

In order to build their own data set to train the AI, the art project's co-authors, artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, first put together a songbook of hymnals that cumulatively express every phoneme in the English language. Then, they took that songbook on tour alongside the Serpentine Arts Technologies team to record 15 different community choirs across the UK on a voluntary basis.

Holly Herndon elaborated on the ownership of those recordings, writing on X, "This dataset is owned by the choirs in question through a new IP structure we created alongside [Serpentine's] Future Art Ecosystems team to allow for common ownership of AI data."

This suggests the contributing choristers have more of a say in how their performances are used - which is miles better than the all too common fate of many a voice actor discovering their voice has been cloned without their permission.

The choirs' performances were recorded ambisonically, and then used to create "a new polyphonic call and response model." Titled 'The Call,' the result is an interactive art installation that encourages audience participation; make some noise, and The Call responds. The Call is currently installed at the Serpentine North Gallery in Hyde Park, London and you can experience it for yourself for free until February 2nd, 2025.

Presented in a stunning white and gold frame with a central unit made from embossed brass, the 'organ' is striking to look at even if you're still feeling a bit dubious about how its sonic output was created. Still, it's a more pleasing sound than my rig's overtaxed fans.

Best CPU for gamingBest gaming motherboardBest graphics cardBest SSD for gaming


Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and AMD.
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards.
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits.
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.

Jess Kinghorn
Hardware Writer

Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.

Read more
Actor Adrien Brody (L) and director Brady Corbet (R) attend to "The Brutalist" photocall at Hotel Rosewood Villamagna on January 17, 2025 in Madrid, Spain.
Film director clarifies that historical epic The Brutalist did use AI during production, but not how you think
An Ai face looks down on a human.
Xbox announces 'a generative AI model for gameplay ideation' called Muse, but don't get too excited: Machines aren't about to make games for you just yet
Aloy
'Creepy,' 'ghastly,' 'rancid': Viewers react to leaked video of Sony's AI-powered Aloy
The OpenAI logo is being displayed on a smartphone with an AI brain visible in the background, in this photo illustration taken in Brussels, Belgium, on January 2, 2024. (Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
OpenAI is working on a new AI model Sam Altman says is ‘good at creative writing’ but to me it reads like a 15-year-old's journal
Microsoft Muse-generated gaming in action
'A massive, massive moment of wow.' Microsoft CEO predicts AI-generated games are a 'CGI moment' for the industry
gotg llama
Blasting AI into the past: Modders get Llama AI working on an old Windows 98 PC
Latest in Processors
A chip being held up in an Intel fab
Intel is reportedly 'working to finalize commitments from Nvidia' as a foundry partner, suggesting gaming potential for the 18A node
AMD Strix Point APU chip, held in a hand, with the reflected light showing the various processing blocks in the chip die
AMD's next-gen 'Gorgon Point' APU outted and seemingly sticks with RDNA 3.5 graphics which is disappointing for handheld gaming PCs if accurate
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivering pancakes and sausages to pre-GTC show hosts and guests, wearing an apron
'There might be a party. I wasn't invited,' says Jensen Huang of the rumoured TSMC proposal to join forces and run Intel's chip fabs
Nvidia Feynman GPU
While we despair of RTX 50-series supplies and wait on next-gen Rubin, Nvidia reveals its next-next GPU architecture will be known as Feynman and is due in 2028
Nvidia Vera CPU
Nvidia reveals Vera, a new CPU with 'custom' cores which could be very exciting for its upcoming premium PC processor
Machinery tools and equipment,Rolls of galvanized steel for production metal pipes and tubes for industrial ventilation systems in factory.
New super-thin '2D' metal sheets could enable ultra-low power chips and can you guess how they're made? Yup, by squishing stuff really hard
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway