“Rodgers and Hammerstein. John and Taupin. ALYSIA and MABLE? Perhaps you haven’t heard of those last two yet but, thanks to the work of a local computer scientist and her team, musicians of the near future may be utilizing artificial-intelligence systems like them to help the creative process along. Dr. Margareta Ackerman, an assistant professor at San Jose State University, will give a free, public lecture on her algorithmic songwriting systems at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) on April 13. “I come from a background of being both a computer scientist and musician, and I had trouble composing,” Ackerman said “When I discovered computational creativity — the idea of a computer as a collaborator — I came up with a system that could collaborate with me on writing melodies that I could then sing.” That system is ALYSIA (Automated LYrical SongwrIting Application), which generates and suggests melodies based on human-provided lyrics. A second system she’s developing, MABLE — “I like to give them girls’ names; they’re my daughters,” Ackerman explained with a smile — develops lyrics in collaboration with humans. (MABLE stands for MexicA’s BaLlad machinE, as it was originally used in conjunction with the storytelling system MEXICA, and is a joint project with Professor Rafael Pérez y Pérez of Mexico’s Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana and Ackerman’s student Divya Singh.)”